


A Different Kind of Magic

by Jassy



Category: Kingsman
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 14:04:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17305985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jassy/pseuds/Jassy
Summary: Eggsy has a special, unique gift, a bond with animals that goes beyond what anyone else is able to do.





	A Different Kind of Magic

**Author's Note:**

> If you've ever read the Immortals series by Tamora Pierce (which you should! I don't care if it's technically YA fiction, it's fantastic) you'll recognize Eggsy's gift as borrowed from Daine. I've altered it a bit for this fic, so there's no shapeshifting or healing, but it's definitely heavily pulled from there.

From the moment he was born, Eggsy Unwin had been different. His doting parents saw a bit of it, although neither really understood what they were seeing. All they knew was that suddenly, their little flat was visited with a strange regularity by all manner of wildlife. Birds of all descriptions tended to sit as close to their windows as possible, warbling, singing, or croaking depending on their nature. Ravens and crows, magpies and others, took to leaving shiny trinkets on the window sill.

The neighborhood animals, cats and dogs, began to congregate with peculiar regularity around their building. More than once, stray animals managed to slip inside, only to be found sitting sentinel outside their door. Michelle took to joking about their ‘Disney Prince’, and Lee could only laugh.

On walks, it was almost frightening the way birds would fly overhead, hawks and pigeons mingled unnaturally, like an honor guard.

Once, a drunk stumbled out of an alley to accost Michelle, slurring demands for money, frightening her and making her break into a stumbling run while pushing the pram. Three dogs appeared out of nowhere and got between her and the man, heads down and growling. A murder of crows flew in to squawk and peck until the man stumbled and ran in the opposite direction.

After that, Michelle began to regard all animals with wary fear. Never mind that they’d protected her and her son, it was clearly unnatural. Animals just didn’t behave that way. Lee wouldn’t let her throw things at them, but he couldn’t stop her from yelling and waiving them away. They started to maintain a greater distance but could always be seen lurking nearby.

When Eggsy was older and requested a pet, a cat or dog, even a hamster, she reacted so negatively that Eggsy had run crying from the room. Guilty, Michelle had followed and in a gentle voice explained that animals were dirty and could be mean and bite. For the first time, her son met her gaze with a strange clarity and informed her that she was wrong. No explanation of things like fleas or mites or rabies could sway him, news stories of children being bitten by dogs, or a cat bite becoming infected could change his mind. He simply stared at her with those frightening eyes and with all the surety of an adult told her that she was wrong, and the animals were his friends. She often caught him feeding seeds to birds and providing local cats and dogs with tidbits of meat scavenged from yesterday’s supper (though how he was able to keep doing so when Michelle watched him like a hawk and never saw him pocketing anything was beyond her). She even saw him a few times feeding mice and squirrels and chipmunks and petting them with an ease she’d never heard of before. And it wasn’t that the animals were simply that domesticated – they ran from literally every other human, adult or child.

Lee always tried to soothe her. Eggsy was simply a gentle lad, he’d explain. Inherently kind, and animals had a sense for that sort of thing. But he wasn’t around as much as she was, didn’t see as much as she did. This wasn’t just that Eggsy was kind and empathetic (though he was, he really was, always the first to attend to a crying friend, the first to offer a hug or bit of sweet to cheer away tears) it was something else. Something other.

Then Lee was killed and left her alone, and there was no one else to help her. No one to calm her fears, and she was free to chase away the animals as she saw fit. She threw a rock at a small stray dog that was lingering near their doorway, and though she felt a bit of guilt when it yipped and ran, limping, down the street, she couldn’t regret it. Even when she turned and saw her son’s betrayed blue eyes staring at her in horror.

After that, animals didn’t come around anymore. Birds flew away from her if she came within a block of them. Dogs would slink into alleys and cats would dart up trees. She never quite forgot the look of betrayal in her son’s eyes, but she consoled herself with the knowledge that she’d saved him from whatever unnatural thing had overcome the local wildlife.

After a good year had passed since she last caught Eggsy with an animal climbing all over him, the worry began to fade. Worry over money became more prominent as her decent paying job at the department store left, with the company having to downsize. They moved to a worse neighborhood, where the people were more frightening than the animals. She went from part time job to part time job, started buying clothes from the secondhand stores, stretched food as far as possible. They moved again, into council estates, and something like depression (but of course she was just tired, wasn’t she, working so hard all alone to raise her little boy, when luck and life seemed out to get them) overcame her, making it harder and harder for her to go out and even try to find work.

Then she met Dean, and he was so charming, in a rough sort of way. Bought groceries for her and Eggsy, brought her flowers and pretty trinkets. Eggsy was twelve by then, and seemed to be fine running with the local lads, laughing and cheerful as always. He didn’t seem to like Dean much, but kept his mouth shut about it, at least. He seemed to understand that she needed someone like Dean. Raising a boy alone was hard, boys were such a handful. And Dean would take Eggsy out at times, out to football games and such, just as a dad should. Dean’s friends were a bit rough, but after all, it was a rough area. Dean wouldn’t bring the wrong sort around her or Eggsy.

Things got so much easier when he moved in. It was like it should be. She kept the house, cooked and kept Dean happy, and Dean took care of the bills and keeping Eggsy in line. She knew how tough of a responsibility it was, so it was understandable when his words were biting, even when his grip on an arm or the back of the neck was bruising. Stress could do things to a person, after all.

And she was so used to ignoring the betrayed look in blue eyes that it wasn’t even a conscious decision any more. The pressure was off of her with Dean there, things were better. Dean kept Eggsy in line, so there was never any danger of animals coming round again, and she could just relax and have a drink or something. Dean would handle everything.

~

Eggsy couldn’t remember a time when he’d been alone in his head. All around him, even when you couldn’t see the source, animals went about their lives. Their thoughts weren’t like his thoughts. They didn’t have words. They tended to think in pictures, concepts and feelings. He’d learned that other people couldn’t hear them. They didn’t see the cat slinking along the wall and know what it was up to, the way it was heading for a known source of clean water, or that bin behind the deli that had meat in it, not yet gone off enough to need avoiding. They didn’t see the bird flying along and know whether it was looking for food or a mate or the perfect lining for a nest. The dog that had that one itchy spot it just couldn’t quite reach.

When he’d gotten a bit older, he’d realized that not only could others hear and know these things, but that seeing the instant trust between him and animals could be actively frightening. His mother was evidence enough of that. He would never forget the fear and pain of the little dog, who had only wanted to play, when his mother had thrown the rock at her. Some of the animals, mostly birds, were quick to explain what his mum was going through. The ones that books told him mated for life explained that Michelle was sick-like, the sick of one’s mate being dead.

While Eggsy could understand that sickness and pain made people behave different, he still couldn’t forget the pain and fear of the dog. He warned his friends to keep their distance, keep out of sight, so as to protect them from his mother. It seemed to make his mother feel better as well, which was nice.

It was still not enough. Though some of the tension left his mum’s face, after a while it came back. After they moved, and especially after they moved again. The animals in the new place, where everyone seemed tired and afraid and angry all the time, were just as mistrustful. There were only a few humans around that they trusted, they told him. Most others threw things or kicked, and some would put out stuff that smelled good but wasn’t, and any who ate it would die. Sometimes, good stuff was put out, but if you tried to eat it, something would bite and kill, but wouldn’t even eat you. Eggsy recognized traps and poison and tried to warn as many of his new friends away as would listen. They didn’t always, so he also tended to patrol when he could to get rid of those things whenever he found them.

Then Dean came into their lives. While his mother’s face grew markedly less drawn, Eggsy lived in a state of fear from the moment they met. He knew the man smelled like a predator to his friends. But not a normal predator. This was the animal that hunted for pleasure. This is the one who did it for sport. He always had the sharp tang of violence around him, mixed with other scents that Eggsy gradually learned were drugs and gun powder. But his mother was oblivious, and there was nothing he could do as Dean slunk into their lives like a malevolent ooze, coating and dirtying everything he touched. Helpless as all young things are, all he could do was keep his mouth shut to avoid attention (quiet quiet, said the mice. Noise brings the predator, agreed the hawks, with far more amusement than the mice) and watch while his mother slowly eroded away into a shadow of herself, brittle smile and brittle laughter hiding whatever she felt.

He tried to leave. Gymnastics was a great deal of fun. He was strong and agile, and his balance, like a cat’s, was incredible. It made him puff up like a bird during mating season showing off to attract a mate when his coach told him how good he was. When he mentioned the Olympics, and visions of gold medals and cereal sponsor deal money would flash in his head. _He_ could be the one to pay the bills, and on a nice flat somewhere, not the dingy council estate. Then his mother wouldn’t need Dean, and his drugs, and his so called friends that circled like rabid dogs.

But Dean got made about the expense of his ‘stupid little hobby’, and his mother bemoaned how tiresome it was to take him to and from practice. Never mind the two competitions he’d won, and never mind his coach’s praise and offer to reduce his fee and pick Eggsy up himself.

That was the end of gymnastics, and the beginning of Eggsy ‘earning his keep’. He hated running drugs. (Sick ones die, said every animal in the area, whenever he encountered a user). He toughed it out, sometimes letting himself get pinched just so’s it would piss Dean off to lose product, or lose his runner or pickpocket or whatever Eggsy was that week. It would get him away for a while, never long enough, but it was something.

Finally he came of age and was able to make his escape. He didn’t have the grades for university, since getting pulled out of school to make runs made it difficult to keep up, no matter how smart he was. But the army would take him, and did. And he did so _well_. He had mates in training, and his instructors were pleased with him. He was free to let the local animals get close more often, and he laughingly accepted the nickname ‘Cindereggsa’ when he was found feeding some field mice. But he made the mistake of making a quick Facetime call to his mum, and there was a cat that lived in the barracks that had, of course, taken to him instantly. He quite liked Watson, and the huge tom took his job as master of the barracks very seriously. His mum caught sight of Watson on the back of his seat, and though she didn’t say anything then, it wasn’t long before she was calling him, almost daily, wailing and hysterical about losing her son the way she’d lost her husband. Finally, when all his reassurances didn’t seem to be doing anything but nor was he leaving, she started talking about how she couldn’t go on without her little boy. She couldn’t live in a world without him, and she may as well just go now, just so she wouldn’t have to live even for a minute with the pain of losing her only child.

He _knew_ it was manipulation. He knew it, and he knew it had nothing to do with anything more than keeping him under her gaze, under Dean’s thumb, and away from anything with fur or feathers. So he quit, ducking his face to avoid the disappointed faces of his instructors, and tucked tail to return to the dingy life of picking pockets and running Dean’s product.

There was a tiny consolation, though. His mum got pregnant. Even Dean seemed happier, rather chuffed over his own fertility, like it was some kind of achievement. That pride dimmed a bit when it turned out the baby was girl, since Dean definitely had some outdated notions on gender roles, but his mum was over the moon, thinking about all the frilly dresses she’d be able to buy and such.

When little Daisy was born, the animals weren’t overly interested. They couldn’t hear her in their heads the way they could Eggsy. They were pleased for him, in the way they were pleased when they had their own offspring, as that meant a continuation of the line, but nothing more. Michelle noticed the disinterest as well, when a neighbor walking one of the few owned dogs in the area stopped to admire the baby in her pram, and the dog just sniffed her and then wandered away to water a patch of weeds. She doted on Daisy in a way that Eggsy couldn’t remember her ever doing with him. He didn’t blame her, though. He doted on Daisy as well.

It didn’t take away the growing frustration of his life. The hopelessness of his situation. And when it boiled over, and he found himself facing jail time, he seriously considered doing it. He’d still be able to talk to his avian friends, and there were mice _everywhere_ , so a year and a half in the clink didn’t seem so bad. He’d heard of blokes coming out having learned a trade, sometimes. Maybe he could learn to fix cars instead of just stealing them. Or maybe welding. But when he piggybacked his way through birds and dogs and cats to an owl near his flat, and over heard Dean bitching about the loss of trade his absence would mean, and thinking that maybe Michelle could help make up the difference on her back, he balked. He wouldn’t grass on his friends, casual as they were. But maybe it was time to call in a barely remembered favor. He didn’t have much to lose from trying, although the strange phone call just made him feel rather stupid.

He felt more confused than stupid when, not even half an hour after hanging up, he was let go with no charges. When he looked up into brown eyes that made him think of the warmth from a dog, mixed with the keen hunger of a hawk, he was drawn in.

Harry Hart was magnetic in a way he’d never experienced before. Bosco, the dog that lived behind the pub, approved of his scent. The queen cat that ruled the local feral cat colony also approved when she pranced along outside the window of their booth. And as a bonus, he got to hear a bit about his dad, and he couldn’t even find a cat anymore who so much as remember Lee Unwin’s scent. His mum sure didn’t talk about him anymore, not since manipulating him into leaving the army. Dean had long ago disposed of any photos, too.

Anger and shame filled him in equal measure when Harry told him point blank that his dad would be disappointed in him. He’d _tried_ , okay? But what choice did he have? You couldn’t just abandon family! Was he supposed to leave his mum alone, with the risk that she might follow through? Or worse, was he supposed to leave Daisy with no better father figure than Dean around? He was thinking of asking some of the local pigeons to drop some slimy bombs on the man’s perfectly coiffed head when he left the pub, but then Poodle and Rottie walked in with the rest, and what followed was pure, predatory poetry in motion as Harry wiped the floor with them all without so much as breaking a sweat.

After, he wandered home in a daze, paying more attention to watching Harry through the eyes of an accommodating crow (nice car, nice house, weird room with the walls lined in tabloid headlines) than to where he was going or even whether it was entirely wise. He flailed, panicked, when Dean laid into him. He didn’t call for help – he wouldn’t get any of his friends hurt trying to go against Dean. It was a little nice that Michelle pleaded for his life, but as expected, she didn’t do anything so concrete and useful as picking up a phone and calling the police. He was certain that he was staring his death in the face, but even so, he wouldn’t give up Harry. Harry, who had seemed to understand at least a little bit better by the time he’d left, whose eyes had been assessing but not, anymore, judgmental.

Then Harry’s voice, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, sounded like the voice of God. He would have thought himself having some sort of about-to-die hallucination except Dean and Michelle both reacted too. He didn’t waste time asking questions himself. Once he had his instructions, he turned and fled, and then fled again when Dean’s boys began closing in on him. He hopped nimbly down the building’s structure, gave a mocking wave when he left the beaten, straggling bastards behind him.

What followed was something out of an action movie. Which, fair enough, since he himself was something out of a comic book or fantasy novel. Still, it wasn’t all learning to fight and spy and do mad things for Queen and Country. Real life meant that there were still bastards, like Charlie and his little clones. Roxy was awesome, though. Even being just as posh as Charlie, she didn’t treat him like shit, and even seemed to prefer his company to that of Charlie and the others. When they were outside, his new friends also seemed to approve of her over the others.

He would feel worse about Amelia, except that, as everyone was attempting to get back to sleep, he let his mind wander and coast along with an owl, and happened to see the young woman being escorted outside with a handshake and a clap on the back for a job well done.

He didn’t have as much time as he might have liked to get to know the wildlife in the area. They were kept busy damn near every minute, and he couldn’t afford to be distracted. (Learning to hunt/forage properly, he explained, and they all understood. Such lessons were important.) Then they were taken out and told to choose a puppy, and Eggsy went a little weak at the knees. He had never had a pet before. The closest had been Watson. Right away he zeroed in on a little shivering ball of fur, snorting and whimpering in his little cage. The poor thing was terrified, cold and missing his mother and siblings, and he folded the little thing up against his chest. (I’ll protect you, he promised. Always.)

It was more than a little terrifying to have the little pug. He had never heard of another person like him, even from the animals themselves. He was the only human who could understand them and be understood by them. If Kingsman was really so secret that they weren’t even properly government, then there’d be no one to know if they threw him in a hole to experiment on him. If they saw even a hint of something _other_ about him, god only knew what they would do.

So he pretended. He acted like some of the boys he remembered from primary school, frustrated with a new puppy who didn’t automatically know all the cool tricks. He pretended anger and frustration when JB couldn’t keep up and didn’t obey the leash. He did research openly into dog training, and made it seem like the treats and praise were what had JB learning to sit and heel and stay so quickly.

Potty training was a bit trickier. JB knew full well to only potty outside in the designated area, but he was tiny, and his bladder was tiny, and he could only hold it for just so long. Still, they had fewer mishaps than the others, and he always took care to reassure the little dog that he understood and wasn’t cross about the mess.

He still almost blew it all, though. Charlie had a heavy hand with his german shephard, and the young dog was very skittish towards his human. Charlie was inconsistent with his commands, which was confusing, so young Ares wasn’t really able to give the man what he wanted. Eggsy had his back to the other recruits while they were having some one on one training time outside. He didn’t see the hit, but he definitely felt the shock of pain and fear and betrayal, and he whirled around almost before the dog could yelp. He barreled into the prick, knocking him on his arse in the grass.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he snarled. “You think kicking him is gonna magically make him know what you want, you dumb piece of shit?”

“It’s my dog, and I’ll train his worthless hide as I see fit,” Charlie snapped back, squaring up. “My family’s had hunting dogs for years!”

“You ain’t never trained no dog,” Eggsy spat back. “You hired out for that shit. Kicking a dog don’t work, and anyone stupid enough to think so is gonna need stitches when the dog has enough.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Merlin barked, appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

“This little pleb is interfering with my training,” Charlie accused.

“You’re fucking too right I am, you shit! You don’t kick a puppy!”

Merlin raised a skeptical brow at Charlie. “Did you kick your puppy?”

Charlie seemed to sense disapproval in the older man’s tone and scrambled to cover his ass. “Not on purpose,” he hedged.

Roxy snorted, rubbing her poodle’s ears. “I was watching you. You most certainly did. My family has also had hunting dogs, going back generations. A kicked dog either becomes timid or aggressive – useless as a working dog either way,” she lectured. Eggsy would worry about her clinical attitude, but he happened to know that Patti (short for Cleopatra) adored her human, who patted and indulged her when no one was looking.

Merlin nodded and turned to Eggsy. “And you objected to this treatment, I take it.”

“Too fucking right I did, mate.” He let his gaze harden. “I don’t give a fuck what else you people do, you’d best not condone animal abuse. That ain’t no better than child abuse,” he warned.

“We certainly do not,” Merlin told them all, mildly affronted by Eggsy’s accusation. “Still, training the puppies is part of your training. Mr. Hesketh, do we have any guarantee that you will cease mistreating this animal?”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “I won’t lay a finger on the thing. I’m quite certain, however, that it’s defective. Possibly brain damaged. It can’t learn a single thing.”

“More like a defective teacher,” Eggsy shot back.

“Oh really? I’ll wager that you won’t be able to get it to so much as sit on command. It’s damaged. It should be destroyed and I should be allowed to choose a replacement.”

Furious, Eggsy turned towards the frightened puppy and knelt. He spoke softly, soothingly, into his ear, too low for any of the humans to hear. When the puppy relaxed enough to lick his face, he pulled a small handful of the training treats out of his pocket. “JB, come!” he reinforced the command with a mental nudge, and his little friend, distracted by a butterfly into having wandered off, perked up and trotted over. He rewarded him with a nibble. “Sit,” he ordered, again reinforcing the command so JB knew he was serious. Ares watched, head cocking from side to side with interest.

Eggsy turned to Ares. “You get the idea, pal? Sit!” With gentle, but firm hands, he guided Ares into the proper position, then gave him a treat. Ares jumped around happily, having not had many of the good tasting little morsels. “Well done! Again, sit!” They repeated the process twice more, until on the fourth repeat, he refrained from using his hands to guide the puppy into the proper position. Most of the recruits clapped when Ares sat properly on command. He turned back and lifted his chin. “The only thing defective around here, is you,” he said coldly.

“Well done, Eggsy. We’ve seen your progress with JB, and we’ve noticed the research you’ve been doing,” Merlin approved. “While it was obvious that you didn’t know much about dogs to begin with, you worked hard to close the gaps in your knowledge and have put your research into effective practice. Charlie, while we have had recruits who, for one reason or another, were unable to partner with a puppy, your behavior is a first. You are most certainly going to have an uphill battle proving your ability to work in a team without the puppy training,” he warned. He turned back and made to reach for Ares. His surprise was obvious when Eggsy stepped between them.

“I’ll train them both,” he asserted. His eyes narrowed at Charlie. “And I’ll happily knock your teeth out if you come near either one.”

“Are you quite sure you wish to do this? Two puppies are four times as difficult to deal with,” Merlin warned.

“I got this, bruv.”

“On your own head be it, then. Back to work. Charlie, I expect you to be creative in your ability to impress me,” Merlin drawled, obviously not expecting much.

True to form, Charlie waited until Merlin had withdrawn before smirking at Eggsy. “You got lucky with that thing, but you’ve just signed your own pink slip. Moron,” he snickered. He moved off to the side and began exercising, as though showing off his ability to do sit-ups was somehow impressive.

Rolling his eyes, Eggsy simply turned his back, although he quietly asked a nearby robin to keep an eye on the berk. He wanted to know if Charlie looked ready to try anything.

He renamed the shepherd puppy Silk, after a spy in one of his favorite fantasy book series. Silk excelled with clear instructions. For the most part, Eggsy tried to keep his training to the boring old methods used by trainers everywhere, and it worked reasonably well. Everyone was watching him – them – even more closely, and he couldn’t let Silk or little JB get too advanced of the others’ dogs. But occasionally, when something seemed too advanced for them, or they were just distracted as young things tended to get, he gave them a bit of a nudge. To keep things from being too obvious, he gave nudges to the other puppies, too.

When Harry ended up in the coma, Eggsy was beside himself. While the man hadn’t been exactly sticking to him like glue before that, he’d managed to catch glimpses of him, enough for encouraging nods and smiles. He’d felt like the man had his back, even from a distance. With him in the coma, he felt very alone. He carved out time to go sit with him as often as possible. When he couldn’t be there in person, an obliging mouse agreed to be smuggled in and sit in a tiny blind spot of the cameras in return for all the easy food Eggsy could drop.

When, after three months, Harry finally awoke, Eggsy knew about it even before the machines beeped the change in breathing and brain waves. It was almost impossible to wait until he’d been officially notified. He trotted down, breathless with his relief, with JB riding on Silk’s back in order to keep up. Harry greeted their entrance with an amused eyebrow lift and a grin for the two half grown dogs. “I take it I have you three to thank for the extra hair I find myself covered in?” he drawled, indicating the black and tan dog hair that dotted his pajamas.

Eggsy shrugged a little sheepishly. “There’s studies ‘bout dogs and cats helping folks who are sick,” he answered vaguely. “Good for blood pressure and such.”

“I see. I can’t say that I’m not glad to see you. I have apparently missed quite a bit of time.”

“Not that much. That posh dog-kicking wanker is still in the running,” Eggsy told him sourly.

“I have no doubt that you’ll prevail over him.”

Merlin came in and attempted to kick him out, but Eggsy glowed when Harry insisted he be allowed to stay. Even better, he was able to help, if only a little bit.

The NLP test had his stomach in knots. He understood the concepts, could put the various techniques into practice, but the idea of his first sexual encounter being nothing more than a training exercise – not to mention using some poor girl like that for one – didn’t sit well with him. He kept his issues to himself, though, and acted as confident as ever. It was a damned relief when he started to feel odd and realized that he’d been drugged.

Waking up tied to some train tracks with some ugly prick asking questions about Harry and Kingsman was far less relieving. Even with the nearby tom cat casually licking a paw and recalling seeing Roxy tied in the same spot, and the section of track sinking into the ground so the train passed over harmlessly, wasn’t as reassuring as it could have been. The drugs had him disoriented, so it was harder to take in the meaning of the images he sent. His fear was very genuine, as was his “Fuck you!” right before the train would have splattered him into unappealing goo.

His adrenaline was pumping hard enough to make his hands shake when he was lifted back into place to find Harry standing there. He wanted to be angry but couldn’t, not when Harry looked so smugly pleased and proud. It was even better when, side by side, they watched as Charlie showed his true spineless character by word vomiting up everything he could to his ‘interrogator’. Eggsy didn’t laugh at Charlie, or even Arthur who seemed cut from the same cloth, but it was a near thing.

The best part though, was getting to spend a full 24 hours with Harry right after. Harry took him to his house, and Eggsy finally got the answer as to why he had all those tabloid headlines plastered over his office. It was a little discouraging that even something as simple as sitting down had rules, rules which he didn’t know, which put him still and always at a disadvantage in this world. Animals had rules too, but they weren’t near so complicated or arbitrary. But Harry didn’t seem too bothered, so Eggsy figured the man wasn’t worried about his ability to learn them.

Learning the way to make a proper martini was quite fun, and just the stress relief he needed after months of feeling on edge, aware of being watched at every moment, terrified that his secret would somehow be found out.

Their time was cut short the next day when they ran into Valentine at the tailor shop. Eggsy was disappointed, of course, but the man had figured out a way to explode people’s heads. He needed to be stopped.

Being summoned to meet with Arthur right after he’d finished being measured was alarming. As was the pointed mention of bringing his dogs with him. With JB and Silk walking perfectly beside him, he entered the room and had a most uncomfortable talk. He had _not_ expected to be handed a gun, much less instructed to kill one of the dogs he had worked and lived with for damn near a year. He didn’t even have to think about it before he told the old man to fuck right off and sent the dogs back to the door with a thought. Arthur frowned briefly when he saw that but was quickly distracted with telling Eggsy what a miserable failure he was and gleefully telling him to leave.

As Eggsy stormed towards the door, he heard a gunshot. Arthur’s “At least the girl has some balls!” horrified him, until he was able to connect with her poodle. Through Patti’s ears, he heard Roxy crying in relief and Percival reassuring her that they were blanks, of course they wouldn’t do such a thing. For a moment, Eggsy felt stupid. None of the tests had really been what they seemed. But then, that was the point. They never knew what the point was. Shooting the dog could easily have been real and declining to do so the correct answer. Either way, it was a sadistic fucking thing to do, and he wasn’t sure he could forgive Harry for putting him through even the suggestion. Or rather, he wasn’t sure he could forgive Harry for allowing it to be Arthur who did it.

He had no qualms about loading the dogs into the first car he came to and speeding away. Time was not on his side. Once Harry found out that he’d washed out, the protection he’d been affording Eggsy’s mum and sister, keeping Dean in line, would be withdrawn. He had to make Dean afraid of him, afraid enough that he wouldn’t lay a finger on any of them ever again.

The frustration he felt when the car locked him in and drove him to Harry’s house couldn’t be described.

“You shot a dog just to get a fucking job?!” he spat out, incredulous and hurt that Harry could so dismiss an innocent life like that.

“Yes, I did. And then I spent the next eleven years caring for him until he died of pancreatitis. It was a fucking blank, Eggsy!”

“I know! I knew that as soon as Roxy shot Patti. Just like Amelia is still alive,” Eggsy spat back. “That ain’t the point though, is it? We ain’t supposed to know. We’re just supposed to betray the trust of someone who trusts us absolutely, who is completely dependent on us, just on some old fuck’s say so?”

“How can you know that about Amelia? And you shouldn’t have been able to see Roxy’s test,” Harry said sharply. “She was on the other side of the building for Christ’s sake.”

“What does it matter how,” Eggsy snapped. “I know she ain’t dead. I know it was some stupid shit to test us and make us wise up to how serious shit was or whatever. But shooting our dogs? Maybe, Harry, maybe in the field, if it somehow came down to a choice between one of my dogs and a person, maybe I could do it. The fact that you could do it in cold blood, just for a fucking job, sickens me.”

“Oh for god’s sake, of course I knew he wouldn’t get hurt!” Harry stalked over to a door and flung it open. “And Mr. Pickle reminds me every day that trusting my gut and trusting Kingsman is the right call!”

“You had your dog stuffed?” Eggsy stared at the empty glass eyes staring creepily back at him. “That’s sick, that is.” Behind them, Silk and JB whined in sympathy at his distress. Eggsy flicked his fingers, sending soothing thoughts, and the dogs calmed.

Harry’s sharp gaze noted the movement and its immediate effect. “And that’s almost unnatural, how in tune you and they are,” he said. His glasses chimed before Eggsy could respond. When he finished his conversation with, presumably, Merlin, he turned back to Eggsy. “Stay here. I’ll sort this mess out when I get back.”

Eggsy had little choice. He had no doubt that if he left, Harry would hunt him down when he got back, and it would be the worse for Eggsy. To keep occupied, not to mention potentially get some ammunition, he worked to get into Harry’s computer. It took a few hours, and he wondered why Merlin had experienced enough difficulty to have to wait until Harry woke up to provide the password to be able to get in. ‘Manners Maketh Man’ was not a hard password to figure out. It had only taken Eggsy as long as it did because he had expected it to be something far more difficult. He combed through the available files at random, watching bits of video feed from the nifty glasses the agents wore. Much if it was more boring than he expected, with surveillance and bits of conversations that, while obviously important, weren’t exciting bits of daring espionage as depicted in the movies. Just Harry cleverly ferreting out information that the person he was speaking to didn’t even really realize they were giving him.

He hadn’t found anything he felt he could truly use as leverage when a blinking icon indicated incoming data. He switched over to the live feed and watched through Harry’s eyes as he surveyed a small, white church, and the quiet little street it sat on. Harry walked in and took his seat, and Eggsy was treated to one of the most hate filled diatribes he’d ever had the misfortune to hear. He could also hear Merlin’s comments to Harry and realized that Merlin was right. With some kind of test supposedly happening there today, Valentine should be there. It was some kind of trap.

Desperate suddenly, heart pounding, Eggsy knew that whatever was about to happen, _none_ of them were prepared. Never before had Eggsy tried what he set out to do just then. He had never tried to see how far his mind could go, hopping from animal to animal. He had always been content with whatever of his friends were in the immediate vicinity, and though he’d taken a couple of long flights with birds on occasion, he’d never gone more than a few miles from his physical body. He wasn’t even sure what it would do to him to go so far, if his mind could somehow snap the connection to his body and leave him trapped sharing the mind of animals, if the connection snapping would somehow kill him.

He hopped, mind to mind, zeroing in on where he knew, roughly, Harry to be. Strange birds that had never heard of him still greeted him, whales with ruffled dignity fairly chucked him back out. Back on land, across the wide ocean, he went back to birds and dogs, foxes and squirrels, whatever was in range of his mind when he gathered himself for the next hop. Finally, he ended in the body of a raven, sleek black feathers ruffling as the bird croaked a greeting and obligingly flew by the church. The journey had taken a matter of minutes, it seemed, as the sermon was still going on, and Harry was just getting up, apparently tired of waiting while listening to the hate.

Eggsy flew around the church once, not seeing anything. The raven helpfully supplied him of an image of Valentine’s valet, with her shiny prosthetics that had caught the raven’s eyes. She had been going into a house across the street. Eggsy flew by it and saw Valentine, the woman, a couple of flunkies in a room. On the table was a large, odd looking machine and a computer. Valentine was watching something, hand moving toward the machine.

From the church, a strange, aggravating whine began to eminate. Eggsy flew back and looked inside in time to see Harry, gun pointed at a woman’s face, pull the trigger. The shot seemed to set off the whole room as everyone exploded into violence, attacking each other with hands and makeshift weapons.

The machine, Eggsy realized. Somehow, between that machine and the SIM cards, Valentine was able to make people lose their shit and attack each other. Harry was fighting brilliantly, as he had in the pub, but so much more brutally. There were no moves to incapacitate, this was pure murder. Somehow, Eggsy had to stop this.

The raven and Eggsy both cried out. Every bird within a mile flew up, squawking violently. Dogs began howling, cats yowled, and all of them began to converge on the formerly quiet little street. Eggsy was stretched very thin. He directed one large bald eagle in through a broken window at the church to take out the camera that Harry had looked straight at. The eagle’s keen eyes didn’t spot any more, and with several guns in the room, Eggsy didn’t want to risk the eagle getting hurt. He and his mate had babies in the nest.

Across the street, a murder of crows helpfully pelted the window where Valentine resided with rocks. The angle was awkward, and the motion was unusual for the birds, so it took several tries before one managed to fling a rock hard enough to break the window. Once it did, though, a peregrine falcon obligingly swooped in and raked sharp talons over scalps, causing a lot of shouting and, apparently, vomiting. Eggsy flew beside the window again and saw Valentine, vomit down his front, waving frantically at the device. The woman turned a knob on it. The irritating whine from the church faded and vanished. Eggsy flew back to it, relieved to see Harry still standing, even a few of the church goers still upright. Most of them looked at the carnage around them and fell to their knees, frantically praying even while covered in blood. Harry seemed dazed as he looked around. He had a knife sticking out of his back.

When Eggsy flew back to Valentine, he found them already regrouping, slashes all bandaged. Valentine was even changing his shirt, and a nearby travel bottle of mouthwash indicated he’d been cleaning the taste from his mouth. “We still don’t have visual in the church,” the woman said, tapping at the keyboard. “We’ll have to go check ourselves to see if the Kingsman is dead. Your new friend in the organization was quite firm on that point.”

Swearing, Eggsy circled the church again. Someone in Kingsman had set Harry up. If it were Merlin, they were fucked. If it was anyone else, they might have a chance, if only he could find a way to communicate with Harry. A nearby raccoon gave him an idea. Clever, clever raccoon, with their clever little hands. With thanks and a regretful goodbye, Eggsy hopped from the raven to the raccoon. The inherent mischief in the creatures helped make it very agreeable to Eggsy. They snuck into the church through a broken window, cautious of the glass that surrounded the dead body outside.

The raccoon barreled into Harry’s legs. On screen, it would look like Harry simply collapsed, with nothing but his blood covered hands visible in frame. Or so Eggsy hoped. Quick as he could, he climbed up Harry’s back, grabbed the glasses, and flung them ahead and over a body. His aim, even in his new little body, was still good. The glasses landed, without ever spinning more than part way, on the other side of the corpse so that the body blocked the camera’s view of Harry.

Eggsy scampered around to Harry’s front. Harry’s wide, stunned eyes met his. Deliberately, Eggsy waved, a very non-wild animal thing to do. Then he reached down and, with nothing better to hand, finger painted with blood ‘fake dead. traitor in kingsman. valentine coming to check. Eggsy will go to merlin’

“I’ve lost my mind,” Harry whispered. Eggsy shook his head frantically, then pointed to a corpse sprawled inelegantly over a toppled pew. Then he pointed at the words ‘fake dead’ again. Dazed, Harry apparently decided to trust what must seem like a hallucination to him and crawled under the body. The knife still sticking out of his back helped with the illusion, or so Eggsy hoped.

He could hear voices outside, Valentine’s lisping one and the woman’s slightly amused one. Eggsy swiftly grabbed the limp arm of another corpse and used it to wipe out the words written in blood. He was starting to fade around the edges, having a harder and harder time controlling his helpful little buddy. Desperate, he hung on as they scampered beneath another toppled pew to hide and watch.

Neither Valentine nor the woman entered. Instead, when the doors opened, one of the flunkies came in, automatic rifle lifted and ready. The praying survivors took no notice, and Eggsy had to wonder if their minds were somehow broken by all this, or if it was just a strange form of shock that would eventually wear off. The flunky walked around the room, stepping over corpses without a flinch, until he spotted the tailored trouser-covered leg sticking out from under a body and a pew. He walked over to it, splitting his attention between Harry and the survivors, obviously worried that one of them would lose it and come at him. He nudged Harry’s leg. When there was no response, either physical or verbal, he crouched down, still eyes the survivors, and groped around. From his low vantage point, Eggsy could see the hand groping for something. Harry nudged the corpse’s arm into reach, and the flunky seemed to check the pulse. Apparently satisfied, he rose and left the church, rather more swiftly than he’d entered.

With the last of his connection, Eggsy crept back out to leave one more message – his mobile number and the word ‘hide until Eggsy can answer’, then gratefully let go of his connection to the raccoon.

Eggsy came to, in his own body, slumped across Harry’s desk. There was a small puddle of blood on the keyboard, and Silk and JB were whining and licking his hands where they dangled limply at his sides. His head ached fiercely, and he couldn’t hear his dogs at the moment. He hoped he hadn’t burned out whatever his ability was. He hoped that, with rest, it would return. In the meantime, he patted his friends reassuringly, staggered into the bathroom to swallow four paracetamol, and drank about four glasses of water straight down. Then he washed his face and staggered back into the office. He rewound the footage from Harry’s glasses to the point at which he remembered climbing up Harry’s back and flinging them off. Merlin’s voice rang with repeated demands for Harry to respond, but even slowed down, Eggsy didn’t see a glimpse of a Harry’s body or his little raccoon friend perched on his back. As far as Merlin could tell, Harry had simply collapsed, perhaps reaching for his glasses, and the fall had sent them flying. The audio was able to pick up a few minutes later when the flunky reported a lack of pulse in the Kingsman guy, and Valentine’s relieved, “Finally! It took long enough. Now, we need to figure out what happened with all the animals. The signal shouldn’t have done that.”

Eggsy closed the laptop. The meds hadn’t kicked in yet, but he couldn’t afford to stop. Harry had been in rough shape, and there was no doubt that emergency services would show up sooner rather than later to aid whoever was left and try to figure out what had caused the slaughter. If Harry weren’t able to get out and hide, he’d be picked up and taken in, either to hospital or to a police station. He had to move fast.

He made sure he had his phone – he’d answer any calls at this point, strange, blocked, or otherwise. He staggered to his feet and had to cling to the desk for a minute. At the end of his longest ride alongs, when he’d let his mind join one of his friends in flight or in hunt, he’d always come back hungry. Whatever he did, it expended energy. The water had helped the dehydration, but his body needed fuel. He wouldn’t stay upright much longer without it.

With JB scampering ahead and Silk walking beside him to help him stay steady, he managed to make his way down the stairs and into the kitchen. Harry, fortunately, like many bachelors seemed to rely on take away. Without a shred of guilt, Eggsy pulled out containers and set to, ravening his way through at least three meals worth of food before he finally slowed. He found some slightly stale cinnamon buns in the cupboard and scarfed a couple of those as well, although somewhat slower. The sugar boost would be very welcome. By the time he finished, he was feeling somewhat better. He could even hear, slightly, his two friends’ worry for him.

“Listen you,” he said, kneeling down beside them. “I have to go, and I have to go alone. I’ll leave the food and water for you, should be good for at least a week.” Time was a rough concept for most animals, but he’d noticed that JB and Silk seemed to have gotten smarter than a dog should be over time. They understood the rough estimate of time that he impressed upon them. They also understood that they should do their toilet in the bathtub until he or someone else came to take care of them. If no one came by the time the food ran out, Silk was to open a window and help JB to get out.

He left then, already missing them.

Back at the shop, he stormed his way up above and burst into the round table room. Arthur looked up at him, apparently not surprised. “Arthur, Harry’s dead,” he said. His lingering headache, combined with the weird rawness that came from blood dripping down one’s throat, helped put the appropriate rough tone of grief in his voice.

“Galahad is dead, and hence, we have just drunk a toast to him.”

“Then you know what Valentine did! The church was just a test, he said. He was handing out those SIM cards all over the world. He could do what he did in the church to the whole world,” Eggsy said, desperate. Arthur was supposed to be the leader. Everyone in Kingsman trusted him. If he was the traitor…..

“And thanks to Galahad’s recording, we have enough evidence to have Valentine arrested. We have passed the evidence on to the relevant authorities, and they will take it from there. And a fine legacy it is for our fallen friend.”

“So… that’s it, then?”

“Come and sit down, boy.” Eggsy rounded the table and took the indicated seat. As Arthur leaned to pour the drinks, Eggsy saw the all too familiar scar. At least, he thought, it wasn’t Merlin. Arthur as traitor was bad for Kingsman as a whole. Merlin as a traitor would be doubly bad for Eggsy and Harry. Only Merlin had seen the feed and would perhaps have doubts. Barely listening to whatever the old man was babbling about, he cast around for a distraction.

“Are those all Kingsman, then?” he asked, feigning interest in the dusty portraits on the wall. Proud as he was, Arthur couldn’t resist turning and studying the as he explained that they’d all been founding members. While he was turned away, Eggsy swapped the brandy glasses. Arthur didn’t have a gun on him, and no way does a man like that waste a rare, and expensive brandy on a pleb like Eggsy, no matter the reason. The satisfied look when Eggsy risked downing his drink in one go clinched it.

“Harry says you don’t like to break rules, Arthur. Why now?”

Arthur chuckled. “You’re very clever, Eggsy, Perhaps I’ll make you my proposal for Galahad’s position. Provided we can see eye to eye on certain…political matters.”

Eggsy pursed his lips in contempt. “Valentine got to you. Somehow,” he said, disgust in his voice. It was enough to goad the man into a self-righteous explanation of Valentine’s supposed genius, with the implication that Arthur himself was smart enough to agree. More than likely, it had more to do with a feeling of superiority that Valentine had reinforced by inviting Arthur to be among the elite that would revamp the world. Eggsy was pretty confident when he eyed the poison pen in Arthur’s hand and said, in all seriousness, “I’d rather be with Harry, thanks.”

It was his turn to smirk when the old man suddenly jerked, face twisting. He held up his brandy glass and studied it. “The problem with us common types is, we’re light fingered. Kingsman’s taught me a lot, but sleight of hand? I’ve had that down since the cradle.”

Arthur hissed out a curse, spittle flying, as he convulsed and slumped to the table. Without hesitation, Eggsy snagged the pen and used the wickedly sharp point to open up that scar. He was only half expecting the computer chip that he took out. He took the chip, and the phone that began vibrating with a countdown to ‘V-day’, and jesus, did the man’s arrogance not know any limits? and made his way down to the shop. As he reached the fitting room area, his phone chimed with an incoming text.

While Andrew the tailor eyed him suspiciously, he pulled his phone out to read the text. _Eggsy, it’s harry. Call if you’re somewhere safe._ Eyes wide, he held up a finger to Andrew in a ‘just a minute’ gesture and dashed back up the stairs for a little privacy as he dialed the strange number the text had come from. “Eggsy,” Harry answered immediately. “What in the bloody hell is going on?”

“Harry, are you safe? Are you hidden?”

“Yes, Eggsy,” Harry said, sounding testy. “I have done this before, you know.”

“Oh, you mean you’ve slaughtered damned near an entire church’s worth of people because some madman invented some kind of violence inducing mind control chip thing? And then had a bloody raccoon help you conceal the fact of your own survival long enough for literally everyone in the world except one to think you’re dead?” Eggsy hissed back.

“So the raccoon was real?” Harry demanded.

“You know it was,” Eggsy told him.

“What I don’t know is how you know it was! What the fuck, Eggsy?”

“Harry, I promise you, I will explain everything. Later. But right now, we have bigger problems. The church was just a test. Valentine is planning to do that to the whole world, Harry. And Arthur was a traitor.” Eggsy gave him a run down of what had happened with Arthur, ending with the countdown on the phone.

“Fuck,” was Harry’s succinct reply.

“That’s about it. I was just on my way to see Merlin and give him the chip and the phone. But Harry, what if he’s a traitor too?”

“No chance,” Harry assured him. “If he was a traitor too, I’d be dead. He never would have been satisfied with the little show I staged, he would have insisted on seeing my body for himself. He’s known me too long.”

“Well, that’s something.”

“Are you in the shop still?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I want you to go into room 3 and grab everything you can carry, then get down to Merlin. Call me back when you get there. I have access to a Kingsman plane. He’ll need to disable the tracking on it for me in case Arthur gave that information to Valentine, and I can fly to meet you all at the coordinates Valentine sent out.”

“You can fly?”

“You can apparently mind control small animals from across a bloody ocean?”

“Um. Right. I’ll just go see Merlin.”

“Quickly now, time is of the essence.”

Eggsy hurried to comply with Harry’s instructions, loading up what he hoped was enough weapons for whatever was coming next. Merlin, of course, stripped them all from him while Roxy held a gun on him, at least until Merlin could verify the phone and the chip.

“We’ll have to take care of this ourselves,” Merlin decided.

“Um, there’s one more thing.” He pulled out his own phone and redialed the number, putting it on speakerphone.

“Eggsy, have you explained everything to Merlin?” Harry demanded the moment the call connected.

“Harry?! Good god, you’re alive!” Merlin blurted, astonished.

“Everything except that bit,” Eggsy said sheepishly. “Didn’t think he’d just believe me.”

Harry cleared his throat, and Eggsy wondered if he were stifling a bit of laughter. “Well, that’s one way of letting him know. Yes, Merlin, I am alive. I was in rather rough shape after what happened, but I had the wherewithal to fake my death when Valentine sent one of his men in to check on me. I’m not sure why he cut the signal like he did before everyone was dead, but the few left alive were in no shape to notice much of anything. Now, I can get to the plane, but with Arthur turned traitor, we have no way of knowing if Valentine has the tracking frequency of our jets. You’ll need to disable or spoof them.”

“Roger that. I have a plan, and it will be easier with your help. I’ll send you rendezvous coordinates to the plane. Hurry, Harry.”

Eggsy and Roxy helped Merlin load a bunch of weird shit onto a plane before takeoff. On the way, Merlin was able to make contact with Harry. Eggsy couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the brief moments of Merlin yelling seemed to indicate that Merlin was taking Harry to task for letting him think he was dead. Hopefully, Harry wouldn’t tell Merlin about the strangeness that was Eggsy controlling a raccoon from half a world away.

The plan was not one that made any of them terribly happy, especially Roxy. She was the only one of them light enough to actually reach the upper atmosphere in the cold war relic Merlin proudly presented to them, so there was no choice but for the one of them terrified of sky diving to go up. Harry landed his jet while Merlin was getting Roxy set up. Eggsy suffered one piercing look before Harry turned his attention to Merlin and the tenuous plan, one that was less tenuous with Harry’s help.

As Roxy’s pale-faced form rose into the air, the three of them loaded back onto the plane that Merlin had flown, leaving the other jet where it was. Roxy was to make her way back to it when she landed, as it would give her shelter in the event that it took them longer to return for her. Worst case scenario, she could attempt to fly it with the computer’s help, although none of them relished that idea.

Harry had changed into a fresh suit before arriving and stripped down to allow Merlin to examine his injuries from the church once they were airborne again. With thin lips, he carefully stitched the knife wound on Harry’s back. Harry put his shirt back on and happily loaded back up with the disguised arsenal that Eggsy had insisted on bringing.

“You know this plane is fully stocked,” Merlin observed. “Why did you insist on having Eggsy bring more?”

“We have no idea how many people Valentine has,” Harry told him. “And my plane didn’t have much, in case the damn yanks decided to search it. This way, there’s enough for the three of us.” Harry looked Eggsy over, then raised an eyebrow at Merlin. “Did you bring it?”

“Of course,” Merlin said, sounding disgruntled.

“Good. Eggsy, there’s a suit back there. You’ll be coming into the base with me as my valet. Go get changed and we’ll get you kitted out.”

Bewildered, Eggsy wandered into the back of the plane and found a garment bag hanging. Inside, he found a suit much like Harry’s. When he put it on, he found that it fit perfectly – better than anything he’d ever worn in his life. He finished with his own pair of glasses, wrinkling his nose a little at the digital display that popped up. That would take some getting used to.

When he stepped out, he was a little surprised at the frankly appraising look that Harry favored him with, ending with a flash of something like _heat_ before Harry shuttered the look away and nodded.

“Looking good, Eggsy,” Merlin approved.

“Feeling good, Merlin,” he admitted. He wasn’t a fan of the tie, but everything else fit like a second skin.

“Now then, when we land, I’ll go in as Chester King. His phone will work as our ticket in. You will, as I said, go in as my valet. We’ll want to avoid Valentine’s notice, since he’s seen both our faces. We need to get Merlin access to a computer or a phone that has access to Valentine’s closed network. He should be able to use that to shut down the system. Roxy taking out the satellite will buy us extra time. As a valet, you will be expected to stay quiet and behind and to the right of me. It’s expected that you’ll be attentive, so that you can anticipate my needs.” Harry gave him a serious look. “That means that you’ll be able to study the room, even if I’m focused on speaking to someone. Do your best to take in everything, but don’t gawk like a tourist.”

“Got it,” Eggsy said tightly. It would be difficult. They’d all done observation exercises in training, but he’d always had his friends to help him. Somehow he doubted that Valentine had terribly many animals running about the place. He’d be down to just his own normal human abilities.

Harry clasped his shoulder reassuringly. “You can do this, Eggsy,” he said. “I have every confidence in you.” Eggsy nodded with a small smile. Harry turned to Merlin to discuss the chip, and Eggsy sat quietly and listened. Eventually, Harry wondered if the information was of any immediate use to them and Merlin had to admit it wasn’t. As they were approaching their destination, the chip was abandoned and Merlin resumed his place in the cockpit.

Harry fiddled with his glasses for a moment, then reached for Eggsy. “If you feel just here, next to the hinge on the left,” he murmured, casting a glance at the closed cockpit door, “you’ll feel a tiny button. One beep leaves you on the common channel, a double beep will put you on a private channel to the nearest other pair of glasses. Three beeps stops you broadcasting at all. Go on now and try it, cycle through until you hit three beeps.”

A little bewildered, Eggsy put the glasses on and dutifully cycled through all three. Beside him, Harry brushed his finger over his own pair of glasses. “We aren’t recording now?”

“Well, I ain’t,” Eggsy told him.

“Nor am I. I don’t need details, not yet. But will you be able to do what you did in Kentucky in there?”

Eggsy swallowed. “You mean, make animals go nuts or something? Depends on if anyone brought any pets,” he whispered.

“What about the people? After all, we’re really just animals,” Harry pointed out.

“But human minds work different. Can’t hear a thing from humans,” Eggsy explained. “There might be mice – usually are, where you find humans. We drop lots of food for ‘em. But mice aren’t much help if things go nuts. They run, an’ you can’t ask them to go against their natures. And it ain’t like a mouse bite is gonna do much good anyway.”

Harry nodded, looking a little disappointed. “Okay. So no furry or feathered help is likely. Good to know.” He touched his glasses again, so Eggsy did the same, putting them back on the general channel to keep things open with Merlin in time for them to land.

Eggsy shuddered a little at the mountain bunker, its sheer size and the number of people that could be detected inside. He pushed the fear down and assumed his position behind and to the right of Harry as they exited the plane. It was almost a relief that he was expected to keep his mouth shut. It let him concentrate on keeping a bland face while he observed their surroundings, frequently checking in with Harry with little looks. Although he was frisked the same as Harry, no one gave him a second glance after that.

They were led through the complex to a room filled with people, decorated like it was a bloody New Year’s party or something. Eggsy stretched his still bruised ability, but couldn’t pick up more than traces of, as expected, a few mice. More distantly, he was able to pick out an eagle, soaring on a warm updraft created by the sun’s reflection off the snow, and interested only in finding a meal to take back to his mate and hatchlings.

Pulling his attention back to the room, he managed to convey an order for a martini for ‘Chester’ the way Harry had taught him to make them. He kept his accent as close to Harry’s as possible, and must have passed since the person taking the order seemed entirely unfazed. They circled the room, and Eggsy found himself slightly annoyed, but mostly relieved, at the way eyes seemed to pass over him like he wasn’t there. Fucking snobs, honestly.

A waiter brought Harry his martini, which Harry accepted and sipped at. It allowed him to pause and glance around the room more fully. Barely moving his lips, Eggsy drew his attention to something he’d spotted himself. “Old white bloke with a computer,” he murmured, barely loud enough to hear himself. “Ten o’clock.”

“Well spotted,” Harry murmured, equally softly. Harry moved around the room casually, smiling and nodding to people as he went. They smoothly made their way to the second level, where Harry paused beside the man that Merlin informed him was the Swedish Prime Minister. Eggsy shifted slightly to block the view of anyone who happened to look up, and Harry moved in and swiftly darted the man, shoving him over and taking over the laptop. While Harry worked, Eggsy scanned the room a little more openly, having a better view of both levels from their spot. He could see Valentine and the woman with the prosthetics in a glass enclosed room across from them. Just as importantly, he spotted, “Charlie!” Fortunately, he managed to keep his voice to a whisper even in his surprise.

“I beg your pardon?” Merlin demanded. Eggsy took a brief second to look directly at Charlie Hesketh, then shifted to keep his face from being directly visible to the other man. He could just barely make out the wanker’s form from the corner of his eye.

“That complicates things slightly,” Harry murmured. “If he should spot either of us and raise the alarm, we could have a problem.”

“You think?” Eggsy snarked. “Figures that dickhead would be here.”

“Indeed. He is Chester’s grandson, after all.”

“You taking the piss?”

“Not even a little,” Merlin assured him.

“Brilliant,” Eggsy grumbled.

“Stay calm,” Harry advised. “I’m just about…there. You in, Merlin?”

“I am. Get back here before that twat sees you.”

Smooth and casual as when they’d climbed the stairs, Harry and Eggsy made their way back down. Unfortunately, as they made to enter the hallway to head back to the plane, Eggsy caught sight of Charlie’s head jerking to stare directly at them. Neither he nor Harry were facing Charlie directly, but even at an angle, there was apparently something familiar enough about one or both of them to catch his attention. “Harry…”

“I saw. I do believe he wants to confirm things before drawing any attention to us. I suggest we find a quiet spot to have a chat with him.”

Eggsy gave him a suspicious look. “You’re not going to let me kill him, are you?”

Harry’s lips quirked in a little smile but he refrained from answering.

“Wait, does that mean I _can_ or…?”

Harry found a spot where several of the somewhat confusing series of tunnels came together and the glasses indicated that none of the guards were nearby. If they could keep Charlie quiet, they should be good. Harry leaned against the wall, arms crossed, giving off the overwhelming impression of a man about to watch a show.

Eggsy straightened his posture and waited. When Charlie entered the junction, he glared at Harry. “You! You’re supposed to be dead.”

“Nah, bruv,” Eggsy told him. “That’d be your grandad. You’re welcome for that, by the way.”

Enraged, Charlie whirled and threw a punch. Eggsy caught his wrist and whirled, using Charlie’s own momentum along with a hard shove to the back of the neck to help propel him face first into the stone wall. There was a satisfying, wet crunch, and Charlie crumpled to the ground with blood pouring down from his nose. Eggsy stared down at him, then looked over at Harry. “Seriously?”

Harry walked over to stand next to him and looked down as well. “It would appear so. Come, there appears to be a maintenance closet here. We’ll throw him in there for the time being.”

“That was just pathetic,” Eggsy grumbled. “I didn’t even get to properly hit him.” He bent and grabbed him under the shoulders to drag him to the room Harry led him to. Harry let him have a bit of fun with tying him with his own shoe laces, then Harry darted him for good measure. “Wanker.”

“Pardon me, gentlemen. I hate to ruin your fun, but we have a problem,” Merlin interrupted. “It would seem that Valentine’s system has biometric security. There is no way I can hack my way in. You’ll need to make sure his hand never touches the console.”

“Shit.” Eggsy looked up at Harry.

Harry raised an eyebrow at him. “Ideas, Eggsy?”

Eggsy scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Well. We could just chuck a grenade in there. It’d blow up the console, yeah? Would that work? And do we want Valentine alive?”

Harry pursed his lips. “We may want to keep the console intact, if possible. At present, we can’t be certain who he has under his thumb, but we do know that he has a number of very powerful people who agree with him. We need the evidence to give to the proper authorities. If that information is stored in the console, it could make it difficult to retrieve, and Valentine could end up with a pardon, if the right people are in his camp.”

“Okay, so we kill him and keep the console for Merlin to play with. Got it. We’ll have to watch out for that woman. Go in, take ‘em both down fast and hard. Security’d be a problem though, if they’re loyal to their boss….” Eggsy trailed off, struck by a thought.

“What?”

“Well….I was thinking ‘bout the implants. We know they can blow up people’s heads. And we know they can be targeted, ‘cause he was able to pick out Professor Arnold out of everyone.” He looked up at Harry uncertainly. “Lot’s of security ‘round here.” It sat a bit uneasily to be discussing the cold-blooded murder of at least a hundred people via cranial explosive. But he and Harry had been forced to leave most of their weaponry on the plane, only able to bring in the smaller disguised items. They didn’t have the fire power to take out the force that would come for them if their execution of Valentine and his body guard got as noisy as Eggsy feared it would.

“I can do that,” Merlin helpfully chimed in. “Wait a moment…we may not have a choice. It would seem that someone finally noticed the Swedish Prime Minister and it has Valentine spooked. Security is actively patrolling and Valentine has initiated the count down.”

“How’s Roxy doing?” Eggsy asked sharply.

“Bit of a fright, but she got the job done.”

“Merlin, target security if you can, activate them all if you can’t,” Harry ordered crisply. “We will see to Valentine. Come along, Eggsy.”

“Yes, Harry.”

With Merlin feeding them directions, they wound their way through the maze of corridors. About halfway to their destination they finally encountered resistance. Harry went low while Eggsy went high, doing a jump rebound off the wall to come down on top of the group of four as Harry did a sweeping kick to take their legs out. It was satisfying to finally get to punch someone and provided them with the extra benefit of automatic weapons. The downside, of course, being that the sound of gunfire alarmed the rich bastards that had been waiting eagerly for the signal that would make the vast majority of the world go insane and attack every person they could find, not sparing even the oldest or youngest. Eggsy found that he could bear their fright easily, and it was only being unsure of how their panic would interfere with the mission that made him regret the noise.

Valentine had apparently not taken the precaution of providing bullet proof anything for his security personnel, so the next two groups that they encountered went down even easier than the first. They rounded the last corner into the hallway that led to Valentine’s little control room. It was only Harry’s quick reflexes that kept Eggsy from losing a limb as the woman with the deadly prosthetics came down in a kick that would have taken, at minimum, an arm. As it was, her blade sliced through the gun like it was made of soft butter. Eggsy turned the hard jerk that Harry had given him into a kick that caught her in the small of the back. As she recovered and turned, Harry decorated her front with a half dozen bullet holes.

Distantly, they could hear the sound of pounding, booted feet. “Where are we with those implants?” Harry demanded.

“Another minute, unless you’d like more than a dozen heads of state to lose theirs,” Merlin said tightly. “Valentine is repositioning another satellite. He’ll be able to activate the signal by then. Are you in?”

Harry and Eggsy eyed the thick steel door that had no visible lock to pick. “Eggsy, would you be able to make it in if we shot out the glass from the party room?” Harry asked. “I’m not sure the grenades would get us in without damaging the console.”

“Absolutely.”

“Hurry the fuck up,” Merlin ordered.

They ran. As they ran, they could hear the sound of explosions starting, along with even more screaming. They rounded another corner and had to hug the wall as a group of security exploded, sending bits of skull flying. As Eggsy put an arm up to shield his head, he was astonished to see colored smoke rising from the corpses like the world’s worst fireworks. “He’s fuckin’ mental!”

“You think?” Harry snarked back. As soon as the smoke dissipated, they kept running. When they burst back into the disgustingly festive room, they saw several decapitated security personnel lying near the entrances, indicating that they’d been sent to guard the VIPs. When the people still in the room saw them – and the gun Harry still carried – they all stampeded towards the exits on the other side of the room. Above, in his glass enclosure, they could see Valentine bent over the console.

“It’s started!” Merlin yelled. “Fucking kill him!”

Without hesitation, Harry lifted the gun and began to fire, concentrating his aim in the dead center of the glass. Valentine hit the floor and crawled around the opposite side. Dimly, over the sound of the gunfire, Eggsy thought he could hear him screaming something that might have been a name. When the glass finally gave up in a shower of shards, Eggsy nodded sharply. “Gimme a boost, yeah?”

Harry obligingly positioned himself beneath the balcony. Eggsy took a running start, pushed off Harry’s cupped hands, and launched himself through the missing window. His landing wasn’t great, as he slid on some of the glass that had fallen inwards, and he ended up skidding into the console. He straightened and rounded the console to find Valentine on his back with a gun pointed up and at Eggsy’s head. Eggsy ducked, throwing his arm up to cover his face, as Valentine fired. Eggsy could feel the now familiar impact of the bullets hitting the suit, leaving what would be extremely colorful and painful bruises all along his arm and side, until the gun clicked on empty cylinders.  

“Where’s my Gazy?” Valentine yelled, starting to push himself backwards along the floor.

“Dead,” Eggsy told him.

“You fucker, you killed her? You killed my Gazy?” he half yelled, half sobbed.

“Why so bothered? You were ready to kill millions – maybe billions. What’s one more?” Eggsy hissed, advancing on him. “You _did_ kill all those people in that church.”

“They killed each other!”

“Oh, fuck you, bruv. You fucked with their heads. Ain’t none of them chose to do what they did. It was your hand on the controls, their deaths are on you. Just cause you’s too much a coward to do it more direct don’t change that. An’ you damn near killed one’a the best people I ever met.” Eggsy’s clicked his heels together, releasing the blade on his shoe. “My mum got one of your damn SIM cards too. I got a baby sister – she’s not even three yet. You woulda made it her hands that did the work killing her. All this?” he gestured at the console and beyond, to the room now empty of VIPs. “It’s over, bruv.” With an almost delicate motion, he reached forward and cut the man’s calf.

To his surprise, Valentine took one look at the relatively minor cut on his leg and clapped both hands over his mouth. It wasn’t enough to hold in his vomit. After puking all down his front, Valentine shook his head, weeping. “You killed the world,” he said. “Everyone and everything will die, there won’t be any people left!”

Eggsy shrugged, watching with interest as a creeping black moved over Valentine’s visible skin. “Doubt it, mate. Got rid of a bunch of greedy, selfish pricks in power with this, yeah? There’ll be some chaos, sure, but there’ll be elections too. Bet we get some better people in office. Even if we don’t, Mother Nature finds a way back to balance. Say goodnight, bruv,” he finished, as the blackness finally reached Valentine’s face. The man seemed to gasp and choke, then finally went limp.

“Nicely done, Eggsy,” Merlin approved. “We have a lot of people trying to get to their planes. I have them locked down, however, so they aren’t going anywhere.”

“You got the names of everyone in his pocket yet?”

“I know everyone who has an implant. By now, they’re probably panicking, since there was only about 30 seconds of action. Once we get the VIP’s corralled, I’ll have a closer look at that computer of his and see what else I can find.”

“Right.” Eggsy unlocked the armored door, then walked over to the missing window to wave down at Harry. Harry nodded acknowledgment and they got to work on the clean-up. Valentine had built a disturbingly large number of cells into the bunker, even if they were fairly lavish. The people still alive that had supported Valentine and his crazed plan were of the quite wealthy, spoiled variety for the most part, and the headless bodies combined with the competent way Harry and Eggsy handled the guns convinced them quite easily to trade places with those that had been locked up in disagreement with Valentine. While Merlin burrowed his way into Valentine’s private system, Harry made calls to a number of organizations around the world, passing on information on who to arrest. Eggsy attended to the former prisoners, assisting them with making contact with whichever people they knew that were trustworthy in order to arrange transport home.

In all, it took about 72 hours from when they landed in the bunker until they were able leave. Eggsy was relieved to be out of that place. He was exhausted, head still not entirely recovered from his exertions in saving Harry at the church. They went to retrieve Roxy, and Eggsy shamelessly stuck with her as Harry flew the second jet back to HQ. With every moment that had passed, he’d felt the weight of the coming discussion like a boulder on his neck. A little of the pressure was off without the older man right there, always on the edge of his periphery.

All too soon they landed back at HQ. Merlin directed him and Harry to go rest, while he and a much better rested than the rest of them Roxy started an internal audit of Kingsman to see if Chester King’d had allies, or if the rot had been contained to him.

There was no graceful way to get out of it when Harry firmly clamped a hand on his arm and guided him to the bullet train. Neither spoke through the trip to the shop, nor the taxi ride back to Harry’s house. Once there, Eggsy was able to forestall the conversation due to the need to clean the waste out of the tub and refresh stale water, all while reassuring Silk and JB that he was fine. Harry let him get away with it for just so long, until the most essential of tasks were completed, before once again gripping his elbow firmly and guiding him to sit on the sofa.

Silk and JB stayed glued to his sides, reassuring him in his anxiety that even should Harry reject him, _they_ would not. They were family, pack, and they found Eggsy wonderful in every way.

“Your hands are shaking,” Harry observed steadily. “You walked without hesitation into both Kingsman that first day and into Valentine’s bunker four days ago, without even the faintest of trembles, but the prospect of this conversation has your hands shaking.”

Eggsy hid the shaking of his hands by burying them in the dogs’ fur and shrugged. “Ain’t never had this conversation with anyone before.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“I’m a freak, Harry,” Eggsy said bluntly, though still not looking at him. “I can hear what animals think, make them hear me. I can put myself in their minds and ride along or even completely take them over. I’ve been able to do it my whole life, and I’ve never met another person who can so much as bend a spoon, much less what I do. My dad, from what I remember, didn’t mind the way animals are with me, but mum sure as shit did. Wouldn’t let animals around me at all after dad died, even threw rocks at any as tried. I figured out it scared her and figured too when I got older that there’d be plenty as would wanna use me. Or study me. Ain’t a fan of either idea, yeah?”

“Understandable,” Harry allowed. “So why reveal yourself to me?”

Eggsy’s head jerked up in shock. “The fuck you on about? What choice did I have?”

“You arranged to have the signal cut off early. You could have left me to fend for myself from there, easily. You had already done more than enough.”

Eggsy just shook his head. “You were in rough shape and Valentine was coming to make sure you was dead. Plus there was a traitor in Kingsman.”

“Neither of which were truly your problem, particularly after the way we parted company.”

“So that’s what you really think of me. Fucking figures,” Eggsy muttered. He stood up, Silk and JB moving to be a barrier between them. “You’ll be the one they think is insane if you try tellin’ anyone about me,” he pointed out. “You ain’t got no proof, and I been faking normal so long I don’t gotta think twice about it.”

“For fuck’s sake, Eggsy, I’m not going to tell anyone what you can do,” Harry said, jumping to his feet in turn. He moved to get closer but stopped when both dogs bared their teeth at him. “Eggsy, would you mind telling them to calm down? Even JB is growling!”

“A dog’s a dog,” Eggsy pointed out. “Size don’t matter much.”

“Do you honestly think I intend to hurt you?”

“I don’t know, Harry. I didn’t think you thought that little of me, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. You got pissed when I couldn’t even take a fake shot at my dog. **I** ain’t got it in me to betray someone.”

“And you think I do? I have never betrayed you, Eggsy.”

“The fuck you didn’t. When you made me go through the last test with just Arthur and not you, and just fucking now with what you said,” Eggsy said fiercely. “Like I’m some piece o’ shit that cuts and runs on his friends at the first sign o’ trouble. Like I’m just some fucking bit o’ trash that don’t know what loyalty is, only out for hisself. Why the fuck did you put me forward for Lancelot if that’s what you thought, eh? Why fucking bother with keepin’ Dean from cutting my throat?”

“I was never going to let you be harmed, Eggsy. I didn’t know how bad it was with your stepfather,” Harry explained. “I just needed to make sure you wouldn’t tell anyone about Kingsman before I could make you my proposal. If I had known how dangerous it would be for you to return home, I would have chosen a different way.” Harry dared a small step closer. “I’m sorry about your test,” he continued. “I wanted to be there for it, it should have been postponed when I had to attend to the bug on Valentine. I had no notion that Arthur would go ahead with it in spite of my absence. As for my words just now?” He took another step forward, ignoring the way Silk’s hackles went up. “I did not and would never accuse you of being quick to drop someone. I meant only that, considering my harsh words right before I left, and the fact that you were technically not a Kingsman and you had no way of knowing **if** I could fix that, you had already done more than anyone could have expected of you. It was such an incredible risk for you to help me further, to communicate with me while I was in that church. I simply can’t see what I have done to earn your trust, when others that you have known longer and better do not even know all this.”

Eggsy blinked several times, trying to make his brain catch up. “I…how could I not?” he said helplessly. “Harry, you – you’re the only human to ever look at me like I was worth something. I think my dad loved me, but I don’t really remember. But even mum couldn’t…she was scared of me. She tried to blame it on the animals, like it was them as was weird, but deep down, she knew it were me. And everyone else only ever saw a thug. Even my mates never had too much to say when I took the fall for shit. I couldn’t let Valentine kill you. If you’d died, I don’t know what I would have done. I don’t know what the world would look like right now, but it wouldn’t be pretty.” He looked down at his friends. The dogs stopped growling, instead rubbing against his legs to comfort him. “I didn’t know how far I could reach, before. There was never reason to try. I think, if you had died, there wouldn’t be an animal alive who wouldn’t have heard me screaming. Daisy woulda been safe, and maybe mum, but.”

Harry looked down at the dogs, face solemn. “I don’t believe **I** am worth such devotion,” he murmured.

“Not really your decision, is it? You don’t get to tell me what to feel.”

“No, I suppose I do not.” Harry edged forward again, gently nudging the dogs out of the way until he was toe to toe with Eggsy.

Eggsy finally raised his gaze away from his friends to his,,,mentor? Savior? Friend? He didn’t even know how to think of Harry. Harry was all of those things to him, but so much more. There simply _hadn’t_ been any other option for Eggsy than to do everything in his power to save him, because without him, none of the rest of it meant a damned thing. He wasn’t really afraid that Harry would tell anyone what he could do, no matter what he’d said earlier. If nothing else, Harry had too much honor – real honor, like out of a story – to turn on someone who had saved his life. He had never once felt threatened by Harry. Even right in this moment, his only real fear was of seeing something like the barely hidden fear and disgust that his mother looked at him with in the usually fond brown eyes that he’d grown to love so much.

But Harry wasn’t looking at him like that. There was nothing like fear, or disgust, or even the clinical curiosity that had featured in nightmares when he’d realized his likely fate should the wrong people learn what he could do. Harry wasn’t look at him like he wanted to be away from him or dissect him. He was looking at Eggsy like….

Mates, Silk said knowingly. You both stink of it, he added, with the canine pity for his weak human sense of smell. JB sneezed his agreement.

Eggsy swallowed. “Harry?” he whispered.

Very slowly, Harry reached up and ran his fingertips, feather-soft, down Eggsy’s cheek. “I think,” he said, voice rough in a way Eggsy had never heard it before, “it is only fair to tell you that I…I may not deserve your devotion, but I will do _anything_ to keep it. From the moment you walked out of the police station, I have struggled with a wholly inappropriate desire for you. Everything I have seen of you since, every word out of your mouth, has only made it worse. You are the most incredible person I have ever known. With every reason to distrust _everyone_ , you still placed your trust in me. I am more in awe of that, I think, than even what you are able to do. I don’t know that I would be capable of trusting someone else if I were in your place. I continue to bungle things between us, Eggsy, but I swear to you, I care for you, I trust you, and I will do anything at all to keep you in my life.”

“I’m already here, ain’t I? All you gotta do is not treat me like a freak,” Eggsy said honestly. Because he was just that pathetically easy. That had been his biggest fear. If Harry had once given him the same look his mother wore when she looked at him, something in him would have withered and died, and he would have left.

“You are not a freak,” Harry said fiercely. “You are incredible and amazing, and you also just happen to have a psychic connection to animals besides.”

Eggsy closed his eyes. “God, Harry, you keep talking like that and you’ll never be rid of me,” he said. He pushed into the touch on his face, wanting more. Harry obliged, increasing the pressure of his touch, thumb coming up to sweep over Eggsy’s bottom lip. Without thinking, Eggsy darted his tongue out for a taste, shivering at the salt and cordite flavor that burst over his tongue.

“Eggsy,” Harry groaned. “Eggsy, please, may I kiss you?”

“I might die if you don’t!” He didn’t wait for Harry to come to him. He opened his eyes just enough to aim and stood on his tip toes to meet Harry in the middle. He opened immediately, not interested in some chaste brush of lips, not right then. Harry apparently wasn’t either, and their tongues twined around each other, a slick slide that, objectively, shouldn’t feel as good as it did. Eggsy found himself clinging to broad shoulders and making desperate little whimpers, trying as hard as he could to climb inside the older man.

Harry’s arms wound around him, pulling him flush, grinding their groins together. Eggsy shuddered when he felt the hard length of Harry’s cock through their trousers rubbing against his own.

JB sneezed and gave his trousers a quick tug. Den, he said a little reprovingly. Two leggers need a den for mating.

Eggsy tore his mouth away to gape down at his dog. “How d’you know what two leggers need for mating?”

With magnificent dignity, JB snorted at him and trotted over to the couch. He and Silk hopped up for a nap, ignoring them as hard as they could.

Amazingly, when Eggsy looked up at Harry, he found the older man blushing. “Did-did JB just comment….”

“Um, yeah. Told us to go to the den. He means the bedroom,” he explained.

“Well. It is sound advice. While I attempt to ignore retroactive embarrassment when thinking of what Mr. Pickle must have been more aware of than I realized, shall we take it?”

Eggsy couldn’t help the worry. “They’re always gonna know, Harry. I mean. Silk and JB, they’re smarter than most dogs now.”

“I’ll get used to it,” Harry said, and kissed him again. He began to guide them towards the stairs. Eggsy, wondering at the easy acceptance, relaxed and let him.

Much later, Eggsy sat beside his lover (lover! He, Eggsy Unwin, somehow had Harry Hart as his lover!) idly tracing his fingers over the smooth skin of Harry’s back, careful around the knife wound. He shifted so he was more on his hip, taking pressure off his sore backside while also thrilling at the same soreness. “I could get used to this,” he murmured, giving in to the impulse to lean down and press a kiss into a freckle at the base of Harry’s spine. Harry shifted, pressing up into the kiss.

“I would very much like you to,” he said. He rolled onto his back, then wrapped an arm around Eggsy’s waist in order to tug him on top. Eggsy obligingly flung a leg over to straddle him. He shuddered at the intimacy of having Harry’s currently soft prick nestle between his cheeks. Harry ran his hands up his thighs to grip his hips, where faint bruises that perfectly matched his fingers had formed. “I utterly adore you, my dear. If you would allow it, I would shower you with every comfort and luxury.”

“Silk sheets and silver spoons? Feather pillows and champagne and all?” Eggsy murmured, leaning down to trace his lips over Harry’s stubble.

“Anything you wish, darling,” Harry breathed, nipping his ear.

“Don’t need all that. Just want you.”

“Oh, you have me,” Harry promised. “You’ll never be able to get rid of me.”

“Why would I want to?” Eggsy kissed him, not minding the way it made his already swollen lips tingle and sting.

“Will you stay the night? I know it’s rather fast – less than a week ago you were still in training. But I find myself very reluctant to part from you,” Harry said when they separated, fingers kneading his hips restlessly.

“Two things, love. One: I am right where I wanna be, and ain’t had no thought of going anywhere else. Two: even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I got no where else to go. ‘Cept maybe back to HQ and the dorm, which.” He made a face. “No. There ain’t no sexy, fit as fuck spies there to cuddle and rub all over.”

“Merlin might object to that,” Harry pointed out.

“Pfft. Okay, he might be fit, I guess. And a spy. But I’m picky – gotta have the full package, and he ain’t sexy. And I don’t think he’d like me rubbing all over him.”

“You _are_ rather like a big cat,” Harry agreed. “And I certainly would not appreciate you rubbing all over anyone else.”

“Good. Same goes for me. Ain’t never done this before, but I can tell you I _don’t_ share, Harry.”

“…never? Which part? The long term or….”

“All of it,” Eggsy said, letting his lips play over Harry’s Adam’s apple. Harry’s hands tightened on his hips, almost painfully, so he drew back a little to give Harry’s a quizzical look.

“Are you telling me, dear boy, that you were a virgin?” Harry asked evenly.

“Well yeah.” Eggsy brightened. “You couldn’t tell? Brilliant!”

Harry flexed under him, grinding his hips up as he pulled Eggsy down, increasing the pressure against his no longer soft cock. “Why would you not tell me that?” Harry asked, sounding rather strangled.

Frowning, Eggsy sat all the way up. “Was a bit distracted, okay? So what, you got some rule against virgins?” His frown deepened. “Or wait, is it because of that rent boy comment that Rottie made in the pub? Ain’t got nothing against prostitutes m’self, but I never actually was one.”

“That would not have mattered to me if you had,” Harry told him. His hips twitched again, and Eggsy pressed himself back against it automatically. “No, darling, I am simply…struggling with some rather unfortunately possessive feelings at present.”

Cocking his head, Eggsy considered the way he could feel Harry hardening underneath him, the tight grip on his hips, and the way pupil had all but swallowed the dark whisky brown of his eyes. “You like that, don’t you?” he asked, running his nails down Harry’s chest, leaving red marks in their wake. “You like knowing no one else ever had me.” Harry swallowed, a sound almost like a growl rumbling in his throat. “I kissed before,” Eggsy continued, “but no else has ever seen me naked. No one else has ever touched my cock or seen what my face looks like when I come. Never wanted anyone else like this. Never trusted anyone else like I trust you.”

“Eggsy, darling, if you don’t stop, you may find yourself getting fucked for the second time while you’re still sore from the first!” Harry warned.

A smile split Eggsy’s face. “Well yeah. That’s kinda what I was hoping for.”

“Oh, you little tart!” With a sudden wrench, Harry flipped them both so that he was laying on top, staring down with burning eyes into Eggsy’s face. “You won’t be able to walk tomorrow,” Harry promised.

“Worth it,” Eggsy breathed, craning up to catch Harry’s mouth with his own.

They were both proven correct late the next morning when Silk nudged open the door and insisted that Eggsy get up and let both dogs outside to take care of business. Walking was rather uncomfortable, but the rest of him was so loose limbed and well rested that he genuinely didn’t mind.

Mated, Silk said knowingly, even as he sniffed the grass at the edge of the yard.

Eggsy just grinned, too mellow to care that his friend was so smug. JB had less interest in his mated state and far more interest in a butterfly that was flitting around his area. He bounded after it, sniffing and snorting, until he got a good snoot full of pollen that made him sneeze. With wounded dignity, he abandoned the butterfly to do his own marking.

Down the street, a middle-aged woman was walking her dog. Predictably, her Labrador caught the edge of his feelings and began bounding down the pavement towards them. Eggsy watched them come, leaning against the porch railing, dressed in a borrowed pair of pajama pants, and nothing else. When the dog reached the yard, Eggsy mentally greeted him while Silk and JB did the butt sniffing tail wagging physical greeting of dogs everywhere.

“Bosco! Honestly, what’s gotten into you?” the woman said, giving an exasperated tug on the leash.

“Eh, he’s just greeting new friends,” Eggsy said.

The woman seemed to notice him for the first time, giving a little startle. “Oh! Good morning. I’m sorry about this, Bosco is normally so well mannered.”

“Don’t worry about it. Like I said, new friends,” he tilted his head at the dogs.

“So I see. They seem to be getting on well, that’s for sure. I don’t believe I’ve seen any of you before.” She looked him over curiously, pausing on his bare chest. “I thought…isn’t this Mr. Hart’s house? Are you a…friend?”

“Yeah. Been out of town for a while, just got in last night. Harry let us crash.”

“I see.” Her eyes seemed to fix on his neck and her expression grew slightly frosty. “You really should have your two on a leash,” she said, a little stiffly.

“I hardly think that’s necessary,” Harry said, startling them both as he came out behind Eggsy. “Ms. Gladsdale, how nice to see you and Bosco again. You needn’t worry about Silk and JB, they are very well behaved. Eggsy has them both well trained. You could trust them with an infant.” To Eggsy’s surprise, Harry slipped an arm around his waist. The woman followed the action, eyes growing even colder.

“I see. Glad to hear it,” she said shortly. “Come Bosco!” With another tug on the leash, she urged her dog away from the yard. Eggsy encouraged the dog to go, though he was pleased that the tug hadn’t actually seemed painful for the dog. Bosco, in general, was a happy dog, though he would prefer to go for more runs that they tended to do.

Eggsy laid his hand over the one at his waist. “What was that, then? She seemed nice enough to start.”

“Elaine Gladsdale is a divorced school teacher who has rather made her interest in me known,” Harry explained. “I’m able to avoid her for the most part, but seeing you standing out here like you own the place, with love bites all over your neck, likely put the nail in the coffin of her interest.”

Eggsy clapped a hand to his neck. “Harry! Did you give me hickies?” he hissed.

Harry blinked at him with that same faux innocence Eggsy remembered from the bar. “I certainly hope so. Unless you were with someone else after I fell asleep.”

Laughing, Eggsy turned and tucked his nose into the crook of Harry’s neck. “Like I’d have had the energy.” Harry hummed, clearly pleased. “You know it will be all over the neighborhood by end of day, yeah? That you’ve taken up with some chav?”

Harry made a rude noise that said exactly what he thought of that. “The opinion of my neighbors has never been of any concern to me before, I fail to see why it would be so now. I have you, my dear, and you did say I get to keep you. Let them be scandalized, if it entertains them so much.”

“Yes Harry.” Eggsy glanced back at the dogs. “You boys ready for breakfast?” The dogs turned at once to bound into the house, dancing impatiently until Eggsy and Harry followed them in and shut the door securely behind themselves.

“I’ll get ours started if you’d like that take care of the boys,” Harry offered, already suiting action to words by getting out a skillet while turning on the kettle.

“Cheers,” Eggsy agreed. Now that he was back, he got out the canned food that both dogs preferred to the kibble that he’d had to leave out for them while they’d been gone. Both boys were too well mannered to dance around or bark, but nothing could stop them from urging Eggsy to just hurry up, please, they were half starved. He got a single lick in thanks from each of them when he put their dishes down, and then the kitchen was filled with slobbery, snorting noises as they inhaled their favorite food. He watched for a moment, sharing in their simple joy of a nice day with their favorite food and their favorite people, then turned to help Harry get the human breakfast sorted. Harry seemed to have their eggs and sausage well in hand, so Eggsy took over making toast and their tea. When they finally sat down to eat, he was inordinately pleased with the way Harry immediately tangled their ankles under the table.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Harry asked, the picture of genteel politeness. The way his eyes flicked down to where Eggsy was sitting slightly off center made his very impolite meaning clear.

Unabashed, Eggsy grinned. “We was both right,” he said cheerfully. “I’m sore, and I don’t care.”

Harry’s gaze went a little heated. “Well. Let us hope there is little cause for running today, then.”

Eggsy sobered, considering their situation. It had been all too easy to forget recent events in favor of their conversation and…other activities. They had both been in need of solid rest, but now that they’d gotten it, they would need to return to duty. Or at least, Harry would. Eggsy’s fate was still up in the air. And with his, his mother and sister’s, too. “We should probably get back to HQ, huh?”

Harry sighed but nodded. “Yes. By now, Merlin will have a better idea of the situation within Kingsman as a whole. We haven’t been called, so I doubt there is anything incredibly urgent, but our assistance will be needed.”

“Yours, anyway. We’ll see about mine.” Harry raised an eyebrow and Eggsy rolled his eyes. “I failed the test, remember? Technically I ain’t an agent.”

“After your performance in Valentine’s bunker, I can’t see where anyone would have an issue. Chester is the only one that would have objected, and he is clearly no longer a problem for us. Thanks to you,” Harry finished, sounding very satisfied.

Eggsy scowled. “Yeah, well, fucker shouldn’t have sent you into a trap to be killed.”

Harry raised both eyebrows. “He was also trying to kill you,” he pointed out.

Eggsy waved a hand. “Not the point. He was a dead man walking anyway, even if he was too dumb to know it. Soon as I knew he was the traitor he was dead.”

Harry groaned. “My dear, we haven’t _time_ for you to be saying things like that, and you are too sore for me to ravish you again besides.”

Eggsy blinked. “Me talking about murder gets you going?”

“When you are talking about killing a man for trying to kill _me_ , yes. Think about it,” Harry advised. He washed down the last bite of his sausage then stood. “We should really get going. Your suit is quite filthy, but I’m sure I can find you something that’s not too ill-fitting.”

Eggsy considered the state of the suit – that he’d been wearing for several days running – and winced. They’d taken time to clean up a couple of times, but there hadn’t been spare clothes to hand. Or not bulletproof clothes, and for himself, Eggsy hadn’t felt confident or secure enough to do without that extra protection. Still… “Fuckin’ hell, I don’t have any clothes,” he realized. “Got the one set I showed up in that day, and the suit. Dean probably threw away all my other gear.” He scowled down at his plate. “And I ain’t wearing those ugly damn training suits again, swear down. Whose fuckin’ idea was those things, anyway?”

“They’re traditional,” Harry said, laughter in his voice.

“Traditionally ugly,” Eggsy grumbled. He stood up to put both their plates in the sink. “I hate shopping, you know. I always get followed by store security.”

“With such light fingers, I can’t imagine why.” Harry snagged his hand to place kisses on his light fingers, then gave a little tug. “Have a shower while I try to find something you won’t swim in. I fear if we take much longer, Merlin really will call us. The man can be a real bitch when he’s sleep deprived, and I’m in too good of a mood to deal with that.”

“I’m going to tell him you said that.”

“He won’t be surprised.”

Eggsy showered, quicker than he might have liked considering his soreness, but made the water extra hot to help make up for it. Harry, ever the gentleman, had put out a fresh toothbrush and razor for him. When he walked out of the bathroom toweling his hair, he found a pair of softly worn jeans and a dark blue Henley laid out. Harry was holding a pair of underpants, looking slightly doubtful. Until he looked up and saw Eggsy, then he just looked predatory. A little sheepishly, Eggsy dropped the towel to hang in front of his groin. “Wasn’t tryin’ to show off,” he protested.

“Darling, you don’t need to try,” Harry told him. He shook himself, then added the underwear to the pile of clothes laid out on the bed. “These should work well enough for today. We’ll take your suit to be cleaned and place an order for several more to be made up. I’d let you wear one of mine, but I’m rather longer in the leg and arm than you are, and a suit doesn’t look as good when it’s too big as denim and cotton do.”

“It’s fine, Harry. Go shower. We don’t want Merlin callin’ us in, remember?”

Harry paused on his way past for a lingering kiss, which Eggsy was only too willing to give. He stepped back when he felt Harry’s hand on his backside. “Work, Harry,” he reminded him.

Sighing, Harry obediently made his way into the bathroom.

Eggsy rather swam in Harry’s clothes. He had to roll the legs of the jeans up a couple times, and the sleeves of the Henley several times, just to make sure he wouldn’t be tripping or having his hands encumbered. And it was beyond weird to wear someone else’s underpants. The fact that they were silk didn’t help either. But it was well worth it when Harry came out from his own shower and his gaze went all hot and possessive. “Got a bit of caveman in you,” he observed, not that he minded.

Harry actually pinked up a bit. “My apologies,” he said, sounding chagrined.

“Don’t. I mean, if you get stupid jealous of me talkin’ to someone or the like, we’ll have words. But this? Putting marks on my neck, likin’ me in your clothes, that ain’t a problem. I used your soap and aftershave, too,” he pointed out. “Bout the only way we can scent mark and have anyone really notice it.”

Harry sighed. “Still. I shouldn’t be so possessive.”

“Why not? Never had no one _want_ to be possessive of me b’fore. I…kinda like it.” He wrinkled his nose. “I draw the line at tattoos though. Fair warnin’.”

“I should hope so! Anywhere such a thing would be visible would compromise any cover you might take, and hiding it beneath clothing would defeat the purpose.”

Eggsy laughed and leaned back on the bed. “Okay. Just so’s we’re clear. Now get dressed already! You’re the one that’s officially the agent, here, aren’t you supposed to be the responsible one?”

“I am really not feeling very responsible at present. Damn Chester anyway.” Grumbling, Harry none the less set about putting himself together for the day. Watching him get dressed wasn’t as fun as helping him undress had been, but it was still a pretty show. Every motion was smooth and economical as he buttoned himself into a perfectly pressed, perfectly bespoke suit of armor. By the time he was done, one would never guess at just how uncivilized, even downright filthy the man could get. It was like magic. By the time he was done, he could have walking into Buckingham Palace without a single eyebrow raised.

With a final, mournful look at the bed, Eggsy followed him out with the boys trotting happily at their heels.

Eggsy wasn’t entirely surprised at how tactile Harry was with him, not after his display with the neighbor lady. He _was_ slightly surprised when the hand at the small of his back or on his elbow didn’t disappear when they walked into HQ. There, at least, he’d figured Harry would adhere to some semblance of propriety. “So, no fraternization rules, then?” he observed.

“None whatsoever,” Harry confirmed. “Bit shortsighted, I suppose. But then, our illustrious leaders never considered that a woman might be made a Kingsman, much less that a pair of their highly skilled, elite agents might be shirt-lifters.”

Eggsy scoffed. “Seriously? With all the stories about what blokes get up to at boarding school? No smoke without a bit of fire, after all.”

Harry’s teeth flashed in a grin. “True enough. But such things are not spoken of, and they certainly never leave darkened dormitories.”

“Twats.”

They found Merlin, looking ten kinds of exhausted, slumped at his desk in ops. His eyebrows raised when they entered, and Eggsy saw his gaze linger on where Harry had his hand at the small of his back. Then he blinked and seemed to dismiss it. “I’m glad you’re here, I was getting ready to call you in. We’ve managed to make contact with everyone except Bedivere. His last known location was New York City. Valentine managed to have his SIM cards active for 30 seconds, and in certain locations, that was enough. There weren’t very many deaths, but there were quite a few injuries. The worst of those were automobile related. Road rage taken to a whole new level. His last GPS coordinates had him in downtown.”

Harry nodded soberly. “It’s likely that he wasn’t a traitor, then, or he would have isolated himself. Have you been able to contact hospitals?”

“We’ve tried, but with all the injuries, they’re over run. Someone will have to go out there.”

“We can certainly do that.”

“It shouldn’t require both of you,” Merlin pointed out. “And I rather thought Eggsy might want to get his mother and sister moved.” He arched an eyebrow at Eggsy. “We have a house, only a few blocks away from Harry’s, that should suit your family.”

Eggsy stared back at him, unimpressed. “And I get a house, just like that? Even if I ain’t officially a Knight?”

“We haven’t chosen a name for you yet, but all the Knights except for Bedivere and, technically, Galahad have agreed that you’re in,” Merlin returned. “We’ll hammer out details and codenames later.”

Harry smirked at him. “I did tell you, darling.”

Eggsy shrugged. “I don’t take nothing for granted,” he said, unabashed.

“You should both get going. Eggsy, here are the details of the house,” Merlin said, pulling out a clear plastic packet that held paperwork and keys. “I presume you’ll want your family relocated quickly, and we’ll be wanting you in the field sooner rather than later.”

“Fine by me, bruv.”

“You can also get changed,” Merlin added with a pointed look at the too long jeans. “Andrew was able to make up a second suit for you while we were gone. You’ll find it down in the dorm, along with your civilian clothes.”

“He’s always had good instincts on which way the wind was blowing,” Harry approved. “Thank you, Merlin. Keep us updated, will you?” Without waiting for an answer, he guided Eggsy out of the room and back towards the now vacant candidate dorm.

“We transmitting?” Eggsy asked with a pointed look at Harry’s glasses when they arrived.

“Not at present.”

“Good. Take Silk with you, yeah? He can pass as any kinda working dog you can think of, long as you get him one o’ them vests, and he’s easier for me to connect with. It should be less strain at that distance,” he instructed as he changed.

“Do you feel I need a guardian?” Harry asked, leaned against the wall and just watching.

Eggsy sniffed. “Last time you was over there, you nearly got yourself killed. I ain’t having it again. ‘Sides, you don’t know Bedivere weren’t in Arthur and Valentine’s pockets, just that he was in a bad spot when the cards were activated. Might be he just couldn’t get somewhere safe in time.”

“I can certainly deal with Bedivere if that is the case,” Harry said, sounding slightly affronted.

Eggsy finished knotting his tie, then put his hands on his hips. “Love, you’re already sore from the church, you still got stitches in your back and all. And there’s too many things I ain’t got to try in bed for me to want you any more laid up than you already are.” He let his gaze wander meaningfully down Harry’s body. “Just take him with, yeah? He’ll be able to let you know if something’s wrong over here, too. I ain’t feeling a whole lotta trust in general right now.”

“As you wish, darling.” Harry straightened up and crossed over to him, giving a couple tugs to the jacket and smoothing out his lapels. “We will be fine,” he said, more quietly, letting his hands linger on Eggsy’s chest.

“I know. It’s just – it’s been a shite few days, an’ I don’t wanna risk the one good thing to come out of it.” Eggsy bit his lip, then gave in and leaned up for a lingering kiss. “I ain’t used to getting good things,” he confessed against Harry’s mouth. “Came so close to losin’ you already.”

“Our jobs are dangerous, darling,” Harry pointed out.

“I know that. I do. Ain’t expectin’ you to quit or change, just – be careful, yeah? You said you wanted to get me used to nice things, I expect you to follow through.”

“And so you shall. I shall be very cross with you if you allow that thug and his pack of bullies to damage you in any way.”

Eggsy couldn’t resist a smirk. “No chance of that, love. After all I’ve learned? They won’t get a hit in,” he promised.

Harry kissed him again, then stepped reluctantly back. “Well, Master Silk? Shall we be off?”

Silk cocked his head to the side and gave a quiet woof in response. He and JB exchanged a quick nuzzle before settling at their respective sides. They parted ways outside the dorm. Eggsy took JB and his packet back to Harry’s house, where he left JB with the telly on for a bit of company.

The new house was a lovely thing, two stories with three bedrooms, and fully furnished, even if the furniture was a bit uninspired. They’d need things like linens and dishes and such, but since the packet also held a Kingsman credit card in his name, he wasn’t too worried about that. He planned to make sure they had plenty of time to pack in any case.

One of his mum’s neighbors was watching Daisy, and gladly informed him that his mum was with Dean and his boys down at the pub. He took the time to give his baby sis a quick cuddle, then made his way to the pub. The place went quiet when he stepped in, and his mother’s eyes went wide as saucers when they took in his fancy suit. “Hello mum,” he said, crossing to the middle of the floor. He adjusted his glasses, making sure they were recording so Harry could watch later if he wanted, then rested his hands on the handle of the Rainmaker. “I got me a new job,” he informed her. “Tailor shop, down on Savile Row. Comes with a lot of perks, including a house.” He let his lip curl slightly when he regarded Dean, then refocused on his mother. “Got three bedrooms, an’ yours has got a walk-in closet an’ everything. Come live there,” he asked, just shy of begging. “We’ll get proper lace curtains for Daisy’s room and everything.”

Michelle’s face lit up, and with hardly a glance at Dean, she started to slide out of the booth.

Dean threw a hand out to stop her. “You stay right fuckin’ there, Michelle,” he snarled. “Only place you’ll be walkin’ in to is the hospital to visit ol’ Muggsy.”

Eggsy rolled his eyes. “Mum, y’don’t need him no more. You and Dais’ll be set real nice,” he promised.

Dean shoved her on the shoulder, hard, when she tried to slide out of the booth again. He stood up himself and cracked his knuckles.

“Just go, Eggsy!” Michelle said, panicked.

“Not a chance, mum,” Eggsy swore. He turned to lock the door. “Manners maketh man,” he intoned, mostly for the way it made Poodle and the others shift nervously. “An’ it’s very poor manners to shove a lady. I’d say it’s time you learned better ones.” He hooked the handle of the umbrella around the glass and flung it, pleased when it shattered against Dean’s face. He didn’t bother with further quips after that and laid into the rest of the pack with glee. He wanted them all laid up for a while, so while he didn’t kill any of them, he did make sure to break bones. By the time Rottie lay, clutching his shattered femur, Dean had begun to groggily climb to his feet. Eggsy allowed it and made sure to stand just in reach, smirking in a way that he knew would piss the older man off royally.

True to form, as soon as the smug expression on Eggsy’s face registered in Dean’s pickled brain, he threw a clumsy punch. Eggsy grabbed his wrist with one hand and struck his elbow with the other, bending it the completely wrong direction. Dean howled as his elbow shattered. Just for laughs, Eggsy kicked the side of his knee, breaking that, too. Eggsy calmly stepped over him and extended his hand to his mother. Her eyes were wide and a little frightened as she took in the groaning bodies littering the place, but she took his hand and let him pull her up and out. Eggsy gave a knowing smile to the bartender, who just shrugged and nodded at the door. “They attacked you first,” he said mildly. Eggsy, for all he had on a fancy new suit, was still one of them, after all.

“Cheers mate!” Eggsy guided his mother outside, casually leaning the Rainmaker against his shoulder as they walked. He fiddled with his glasses, turning off the recording.

“A tailor, huh?” Michelle said, a little shakily.

“Yeah, mum. A tailor.” They walked in silence for a couple blocks. “Y’know, this new job. It’s high end, right? Lots of posh clients and all, gotta travel a lot for it. I won’t be around too much.”

“Oh. Is that – is that where you’ve been all these months? Learning tailoring?”

“Yeah. Something like that. So you ain’t gotta worry about me, yeah? Or about…animals, right?” They came to a stop outside the flat. Michelle was silent as she unlocked the door and let them in, then turned worried, sorrowful blue eyes up to meet his.

“Oh, Eggsy. It ain’t like that, babe,” she whispered.

Eggsy frowned at her. “It’s exactly like that, mum,” he corrected. “We ain’t ever talked about it, and we don’t gotta talk about it now. But I know how it scared you. Animals ain’t like that with Daisy, yeah? Not like they are with me. With her, they’re just animals, and don’t pay no extra mind to her than they do anyone else. I got me two dogs now, an’ I ain’t getting rid of ‘em, but they won’t be around much either. So you don’t gotta worry about anything, and you can just take care of Daisy. You don’t need the likes of Dean or his boys, yeah? Promise me, mum.”

Michelle opened her mouth, looked in his eyes, then closed it. Her shoulders slumped, but she nodded. “It was just so strange,” she whispered. “And so frightening, without your father. I never meant to – to make you think I didn’t love you or nothing.”

Eggsy looked away. “I always knew it scared you. But it ain’t the animals’ fault, yeah? They can’t help it, and they never meant harm. So no throwing rocks at ‘em, alright? You’re better’n that, and you don’t need to be teaching that sort of thing to Daisy.” Michelle nodded, swallowing hard. “Right. Let’s get packing. Don’t need no furniture, so just clothes and such.”

There wasn’t much that was in the flat that either of them wanted outside of their clothes. Even Daisy didn’t have much in the way of toys, and Eggsy vowed to go shopping at the earliest chance so he could fill her room with books and dolls and all the bright, beautiful things she deserved. He’d been right about Dean throwing away all the of his own belongings that had been left behind, so that at least made it easier. They tossed everything into several large bin bags, went to collect Daisy, and Eggsy happily packed them into the Kingsman cab to take them to their new house.

Michelle looked around the place, eyes wide and tear-filled. “Oh, Eggsy. Babe, this is too much,” she said. “What tailoring job gives out places like this?”

Eggsy just raised his eyebrows at her. “I took out Dean and all his boys, and it’s the house that’s botherin’ you? It’s safe, mum. That’s what matters.” He kissed her cheek and blew a raspberry on Daisy’s. “I’m gonna hit the shop while you ladies get settled in.” Michelle looked ready to protest again, and he turned a hard look on her. “Mum! You want Daisy growing up around the likes of Dean Baker?” he demanded. “With his drugs and everything? You think he won’t turn her out when she gets older? He’s trash, mum. Daisy deserves better.”

“And so did you,” Michelle admitted. “We all do. It’s a gorgeous house, babe. I’m so proud of you.”

All he could do was shake his head. He loved his mother, but he wasn’t fool enough to believe that. But for Daisy, he was sure she would take the house, and would certainly grow happy enough about it in time. Her brief flashes of guilt, usually when Dean would get rougher than usual, never lasted long. He didn’t expect her to change how she was with him.

By the time he finished at the store and returned to the house, Michelle had managed to put the various bits of clothing away, either in closets or the wash, and set Daisy up in the living room with the few toys that she owned. When Eggsy struggled through the door, weighed down by a dozen shopping bags, she quietly joined him in putting things away where she wanted them. “You didn’t get none of your favorites, babe,” she observed.

“I already told you, mum. I won’t be around much. Demanding job and all.”

“Don’t lie to me, please.”

Eggsy’s fingers clenched around a jar of jam for a moment before he made them relax and put the jar away smoothly, with hardly a pause. He turned to face her, hip leaned against the counter. “Fine then. As much as I love Daisy, I don’t _want_ to be around much. You know something? Someone found out what I can do – and didn’t care. They didn’t throw rocks at my dogs, and they didn’t bring someone around to give me a smack every time I looked like I was daydreaming, just on the off chance I was chatting with birds,” he said, keeping his voice quiet. “I ain’t stupid, mum. You didn’t take up with Dean cause you loved him. You took up with him cause he was happy to smack me around and keep me in line and you didn’t have to worry about it no more. Maybe you love me, but you’re scared of me too, and Dean made you less scared of me. So here’s how it is, yeah? You’re gonna live here. Get a job or something, I don’t care. But you’re gonna stay away from Dean and his boys, and you’re gonna keep Daisy away from Dean and his boys. Because if you don’t, then I’m going to take Daisy far away, so **she** , at least, can grow up happy and safe. I ain’t ashamed of what I can do, and I ain’t gonna let no one smack me around for it no more – even if Dean didn’t really know why you was letting him do it.” Tears welled up in Michelle’s eyes and Eggsy shook his head. “Don’t! Just don’t, mum. You think I didn’t know? I ain’t stupid. Never was.”

“I was just so scared, Eggsy,” she pleaded.

“So scared you let a drunken drug dealing piece of shit smack me around and turn me into his errand boy,” Eggsy said bitterly. “Y’know, my coach reckoned I coulda been Olympic material? Not that Dean would have it – not when it took me away from being a runner for ‘im, and one he din’t have to pay. An’ I was doing so well when I enlisted. Had friends, coulda really made a career of it – til you got pregnant with Daisy and realized how hard it would be to manage Dean and keep a newborn safe. I’m done with that, yeah? I got me a proper job, that I’m good at, that my boss reckons I can go far with. An’ all you gotta do is stay away from Dean and be a proper mum to Daisy.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “I don’t hate you, mum. But I ain’t going to lose out again just cause of your fear,” he told her, as gently as he could. “I seen what real acceptance looks like, an’ I ain’t settling for you ignoring me being different no more. I deserve better, an’ I got it. An’ I got it for Daisy, too. Don’t fuck it up for me. Not again. You can’t give me acceptance, the least you can do is that much.”

Michelle took a deep breath, sniffing back the tears. “I failed you,” she said.

“You threw me to the wolves,” Eggsy corrected. “Only they weren’t as good as real wolves woulda been. Real wolves don’t beat their young.”

“You’re right. I’ll do it, Eggsy. I promise, babe. I’ll be a proper mum to Daisy. I’ll keep away from Dean, best I can –“

“No, you’ll keep away from him entire.”

“He’s her father!”

“That don’t matter. He’s got no claim over her that you don’t let him have. He’s a drug dealer and an abuser. No court is gonna insist you let him see her. And if you take her to see him, I’ll know,” he said simply. “Ain’t no place you could hide her from me and I would take her so far you won’t even remember what she looks like. Make a good life, mum! Without him! That’s all you gotta do.”

“Alright,” she finally agreed.

“Good. There’s some deliveries scheduled the next few days, stuff for you and Daisy, make this place more homey.” He buttoned his jacket, straightened his cuffs. “I have to go. I’ll check in on you later, yeah? You should check out the local to do’s. I think I saw some of them mommy and me play group things advertised. Might be fun.”

“That’s a good idea, babe,” Michelle agreed.

Eggsy gave her a small smile, went into the living room to give his little sister a hug and kiss goodbye, then slipped out the door. He hadn’t actually discussed much with Harry about living situations, but JB was there and would need to be walked soon, and if Harry objected, well, he could always take his friend and stay at HQ. He just couldn’t deal with staying with his mother right then.

When he got back to Harry’s house, he picked out the presence of a flock of birds and three neighborhood cats that had taken up posts around Harry’s garden. Spirits lifting, he sent out warm greetings to everyone and let himself into the house. JB was right there to greet him, dancing and snorting at his feet until he knelt for a proper hello. Once JB had taken his turn through the yard, greeting the cats and marking the boundaries, Eggsy got them both fed and helped himself to a pair of Harry’s pajamas again. Then he settled on the couch with his mobile and reached out.

It was infinitely easier to connect with Silk over the immense distance between them than it had been to hopscotch his way from mind to mind to get to the church. Silk’s mind was as familiar to him as his own, and he was never truly out of contact with either him or JB. At the moment, Silk was lounging on the floor of a hotel room, tolerating the vest and harness that he’d been equipped with, and puzzling over the various scents that littered the place. When Eggsy made contact, he lifted his head to look at Harry, who was sitting at the desk in the room, hunched over his laptop.

At Eggsy’s urging, Silk got up and padded over, chuffing deeply so Eggsy could enjoy the enhanced version of Harry’s scent. With the dog’s nose, he could even still smell traces of his own scent on the man, though they were faint. Silk nudged at Harry’s arm until the man looked down at him with a smile. “Do you need a walk, Master Silk?” he asked, automatically rubbing the dog’s ears. Silk leaned into the touch with a groan of pleasure, but still shook his head side to side in answer. Harry looked startled. “Eggsy?” Silk gave a quiet woof of agreement, then pointed his nose at the mobile laying near the laptop. With a final lick, Eggsy withdrew, in time for his phone to ring.

“Hallo, love,” he answered, settling deeper into the couch.

“Were you just visiting…”

“Yeah. Wanted to check that you weren’t somewhere you couldn’t talk before I interrupted,” he admitted shamelessly.

“That is quite useful,” Harry approved. “Did you get your family taken care of?”

“Yeah. Got the video of me taking care of Dean and his thugs, if you’d care to watch it later. Not a scratch on me,” he promised.

“Excellent, my dear. And how do you like your new house?”

“It’s a good place,” Eggsy allowed. “Real nice for Daisy to grow up in. Mum should have fun decorating it.”

Harry made a thoughtful sound. “And you don’t intend to make your own mark on it?” he said carefully.

“I’ll be honest – I ain’t there right now. I’m sure I’ll put my gear there eventually, when I get some, but.” He let his head thump back and closed his eyes. “I can’t be there right now. I stole your couch,” he admitted.

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you like,” Harry said instantly, relieving Eggsy enormously. “And for heaven’s sake, take the bed. I don’t care how young you are, that couch will do your back no favors.”

“Thanks, love.”

“May I ask why, however?”

“It’s – complicated. Not over the phone, maybe? I just can’t. With mum. Not right now.”

“Alright,” Harry soothed. They talked for a while longer, dancing around the purpose of Harry’s mission there, before moving on to things of less consequence but which were at least not classified and therefore safe to talk about over something as insecure as their mobiles. After a while, Eggsy felt his eyes drooping. “You should get some sleep,” Harry said finally. “I’m guessing you didn’t do much in the way of shopping for yourself, so you’ll want to get that out of the way tomorrow, before Merlin sends you out on any errands. Feel free to leave your purchases at the house with JB.”

“Ta, Harry. Swear, I didn’t mean to just invade the place. Didn’t think things would be so – well. Different, with m’ mum.”

“I already said you’re welcome as long as you’d like. I hope to be home in a couple more days anyway, and it’ll be easier to find time to talk if you’re staying there.”

“Talk, huh? That all you wanna do when you get back?”

“Not in the least, darling. I fully intend to make it as difficult for me to walk as it was for you this morning,” Harry said smoothly, and so casually that it took a beat for the meaning to set in. Eggsy choked out a laugh, startling JB into waking with a wet snort. “Now go get some sleep. I shall have a long day tomorrow, and so will you.”

“Well, if you want to be _sensible_ about it,” Eggsy grumbled. “Though after that comment, I’m almost lookin’ forward to the dreams I’ll be havin’.”

“Excellent! That makes two of us. Sleep well, darling.”

“You too, love,” Eggsy said softly, a fond smile tugging at his lips. He hung up and kept smiling at JB, who merely snorted at him and jumped down to waddle towards the stairs. The talk, though it had touched on nothing important, had done a lot of good for settling the weird upset he’d been feeling, enough so that he was able to climb the stairs after his dog and slip into the still rumpled bed for some actual sleep, rather than restlessly tossing and turning.

Harry didn’t return for three more days, during which Eggsy received two more suits and bought a reasonable replacement wardrobe of casual clothes. The expected flood of missions didn’t appear, though Merlin did explain that away as “Having people arrested, even in droves, was less disruptive than having hundreds of heads of state and high ranking officials get their heads exploded”, which apparently left him free to wait on Harry for a more personalized apprenticeship. Roxy was already working closely with Percival, who had turned out to be her older brother, so apparently Kingsman didn’t really worry about close relationship mucking with professionalism. Probably the reason Merlin hadn’t hardly blinked when they’d walked in with Harry’s hand at the small of his back.

Of course, when he _did_ return, it was with the somber news of Bedivere’s death. He had been caught at an outdoor café during the half a minute where people had gone mad, and a large bus had swerved into the cluster of suddenly fighting people that he’d been part of. It was little comfort that he hadn’t suffered much. After the toast, there was some discussion as to whether they would seek replacement or whether, with Eggsy having taken the name Gawain, they would let the name be retired, as they technically had a full roster. In the end, it was decided that Bedivere deserved to have his legacy continue. Eggsy personally thought that for most of them, based on the skeptical looks that had been tossed his way, it was as much because they didn’t think he would last long as it was about any kind of legacy. That was fine – he was happy to prove them all wrong.

When they finally got to return to Harry’s house, his lover looked far too tired for much of anything, and Eggsy found himself urging him into the shower with a tender kiss, and no thought of follow through. While Harry showered, Eggsy let the dogs out and threw together a quick dinner of soup and sandwiches, all ready on a tray by the time Harry stepped out. Harry looked surprised, and touched, when he spotted the tray. Eggsy shrugged and nodded at the bed.

Harry settled in bed, back braced against the headboard. Eggsy placed the tray over his lap, then sat facing him, legs tangled together so they could both reach the tray. He flicked his eyes up to meet Harry’s. “Did you – were you guys mates?” he asked, delicately as he knew how.

Harry hummed a little around his mouthful. “No. We weren’t especially close. We had very different styles, and rarely worked together. He specialized in financial issues, and I am usually more political. He worked more often with Bors.”

“Well, if anything can be considered good news, Merlin at least cleared everyone of being in Valentine’s pocket.”

“That _is_ good news,” Harry assured him. “Mourning a fallen colleague doesn’t mean we can’t be relieved that things are not as bad as they could have been. The world, and Kingsman, were very lucky.”

“Yeah. Too right there. Dunno how we would have managed if you’d died in Kentucky.” Eggsy quirked a smile at him. “Not sure me and Merlin woulda been enough in that bunker.”

“I have every confidence that you would have managed,” Harry said comfortably. They ate in silence for a bit. When they finished, Harry wiped his mouth primly on his napkin and set the tray on the bedside table. Then he opened his arms. “Come here, if you would, please.”

With a sigh, Eggsy shifted to tuck himself up against Harry, relaxing when Harry’s arms came around him. He felt Harry brush a kiss to his forehead and melted a little further. “I like this,” he said, like he was confessing something embarrassing.

“As do I,” Harry agreed. “I have not had something like this in my life before.”

Eggsy snorted. “You _definitely_ weren’t no virgin.”

“I have had sex, both for personal pleasure and for the job. But I have never had someone with whom I could share the details of my life,” Harry corrected. “I have never had someone that I trusted to such an extent. I needn’t hide anything, from you. It’s strange, and thrilling, and I probably should be alarmed at how quickly you have become essential to me.”

“Mmm.” Eggsy shifted to straddle Harry’s lap, looping his arms around his neck. “Does it help, knowin’ that you’re essential to me, too?”

“Enormously. It will make things ever so much easier to keep you if that’s the case.” Harry started to plant little, clinging kisses along his jaw that made his eyes flutter. “I am a terrible man, my darling. I’m not sure I could give you up at this point. The things I would do to keep you.” He punctuated the fierce statement with a nip to his ear, then sucked the lobe into his mouth. Eggsy shuddered and rocked forward.

“Ohh. Would you – turn villain, then? Enact some evil, master plan to keep me?” he asked, already breathless.

“I would topple empires, my darling. Destroy civilizations for you,” Harry promised.

“Seems like an awful lot of work. I can think of an easier way to keep me.”

“Tell me, then. I’ll do it, sweet boy. Anything for you.”

“Kiss me.”

Harry obeyed, taking his mouth in a rough, demanding kiss. Eggsy tangled his fingers in Harry’s curling, slightly damp hair and kissed back just as roughly. He could feel Harry beneath him, hard and throbbing against his own erection, and all he could think about was getting closer. He didn’t care how. All previous thoughts of simply tucking his lover into bed for rest were out the window in the face of Harry’s obvious need.

Later, Eggsy found himself laying on his front with Harry plastered to his back, nose tucked in behind his ear. Harry’s arms were around him, one under his head as a pillow, the other diagonal across his chest to hold him securely, fingers twined with his. “You’re perfect, darling,” Harry sighed into his ear. “Just perfect – like you were made just for me.”

Eggsy couldn’t help the way his lips curled up in a smile. “Wouldn’t that be something? I’d be okay with that – if I was made for you, then you was made for me too.”

“But of course. That’s the way it works, does it not?” Harry pressed a kiss into the hollow behind his ear. “Sleep, my darling. We’ll stay in tomorrow, just a quiet day for the two of us.”

“You’re only sayin’ that so no one sees _you_ limping,” Eggsy quipped. But he squeezed Harry’s fingers and shifted back, pressing into the weight pinning him to the bed.

“Brat,” Harry said fondly.

Harry woke before him the next morning. Eggsy woke to the smell of coffee and something sweet cooking, and the anticipation of both dogs hoping for an extra tasty treat. Yawning, Eggsy slid out of bed and grabbed the nearest bit of clothing to hand, which happened to be Harry’s dress shirt from the day before. Recalling the possessive look Harry had worn the last time Eggsy had dressed in his clothes, he slipped it on with a faint smirk and left it mostly open, hem brushing the tops of his thighs.

Harry was all buttoned up proper in pajamas, robe tied around his waist, with Kingsman slippers covering his feet. Silk and JB barely spared him a glance when he padded into the kitchen, too focused on the pancakes that Harry was making. Silk, in particular, had fond memories of previous treats. “People food ain’t good for you,” he told them, then wagged a finger at Harry when he turned around. “People food is too fatty for them, love. We’ll go down and get some beef bones, yeah? With plenty of meat and marrow. ‘s good for their teeth.”

Harry managed a brief, guilty look at Silk, then turned his attention to Eggsy. “As you wish, my dear.” He let his gaze pan down Eggsy’s form. Without hesitating, he snaked out one arm to reel him in for a kiss. “You should go put on more clothes, or breakfast is going to be delayed,” he warned.

“Is that – is that supposed to be a bad thing?” he wondered.

“Tart,” Harry accused mildly. He planted one hand on Eggsy rear to keep him close, while flipping the pancakes. Eggsy settled in with a sigh, letting his head come to rest against Harry’s shoulder. Harry, he noticed, kept his eyes fixed on the food. Even while his hand occasionally flexed against his ass. In short order, Harry had two plates piled with fluffy, golden brown pancakes. Eggsy reluctantly broke away to gather coffee, butter and syrup. In a small concession to propriety, Eggsy fastened a couple buttons on the shirt, but made no other move to add more clothes. Harry had promised a day for just the two of them to laze about, and he not only intended to hold him to it but saw no need for extra layers while they did so. Their legs tangled beneath the table again as they ate. “Did you want to speak about what happened with your mother the other day?” Harry asked quietly.

Both dogs sat up with little whines, reflecting the sudden drop in Eggsy’s mood. “It’s okay,” he soothed, hands going out to rest on furry heads. He gave Harry a wry grin. “Way to spoil the mood, love.”

“Not my intent, I assure you.” Harry pushed his plate away and reached over to take Eggsy’s hand. “You were upset after getting her and your sister moved in,” he reminded. “I saw the footage. You took Dean and his lot out so well. You worked so hard to get to a place where you could take care of your mother and sister. I’m simply concerned. I would have expected you to be a bit more – on top of the world, with your success.” Eggsy opened his mouth but found himself unable to even start to explain. Harry studied him for a moment, then stood and tugged Eggsy to his feet. “Come, darling,” he murmured.

“Ain’t even breathin’ fast, yet,” Eggsy joked weakly.

“That was dreadful,” Harry told him mildly. He towed Eggsy into the living room and reclined on the sofa. With a bit of tugging and tucking, Eggsy found himself tucked up against Harry, sandwiched between Harry and the back of the sofa. With a sigh, Eggsy closed his eyes and tucked his head under Harry’s chin. “You don’t have to tell me, but I’m here if you wish to.”

“It ain’t that I don’t want to. I just…I didn’t think I was so angry with her,” he finally blurted. “I really didn’t. She took some convincin’ to take the house, yeah? An’ then she kept commentin’ on me doing up my room, and how I didn’t buy none of my favorite foods and shit, and just wouldn’t leave it alone when I said I had to work a lot. And then she told me not to lie to her, and it just all kinda – came out. I didn’t even know I thought all that.”

“All what?”

“Harry, I know I wasn’t – like, when I said no one would believe you if you told what I could do. I knew you wouldn’t, even when I was saying it.” He tightened his arm around Harry’s chest when he felt the kiss on the top of his head. “But you hardly blinked when you found out. You weren’t scared, you didn’t look at me like I was a freak. And when I look back at all the times she’d scare away the birds or throw rocks, all the times she’d tell me how dirty and dangerous animals were. And then she took up with Dean, and she didn’t never lift a fuckin’ finger to stop him when he’d start in on me. She’d always tell me to speak respectful to him, that I should behave and not make him angry, and it was only when he was at his worst, when it looked like he’d _really_ hurt me, that she’d step in. She threw me at him, just about. Like I was too stupid to notice. If it weren’t for Daisy,” he finished, “I would have left her to him without lookin’ back _once_.”

“And with every right to,” Harry said firmly.

“But she’s my mum!”

“And she betrayed your trust, and she kept doing it every single day that she made you stay with him. You have a right to be angry, Eggsy. It’s entirely possible to love someone and still be angry with them.”

“I had to threaten her to make her agree to stay away from Dean. Her goin’ on about how he’s Daisy’s father an all, like that means shit.” He shifted to look up and meet Harry’s eyes. “I weren’t lying, either. She takes Dais around that fucker even once, I’ll take Daisy,” he said fiercely. “Won’t even hesitate. Maybe it don’t make me better’n Dean, orderin’ her around like that, but I don’t care! Dean’ll beat Daisy just the same as me, he’ll make her run drugs and prolly turn her out, too, he gets his way. I ain’t havin’ it.”

“Do you really think your mother would go back to him?”

“He made things easy for her, din’t he?” Eggsy said bitterly. “She din’t have to do nothing, ‘cept climb all over him whenever he wanted. She stayed clean while she was pregnant, but she likes her booze, an’ a cryin’ baby….”

“I will take care of Mr. Baker,” Harry promised. “I may have been exaggerating the day we met about the amount of evidence that I had on him at the time, but I _did_ take the liberty of looking into him further in case he proved more of an annoyance down the road.”

“Seriously? I never had no evidence that wouldn’t get me locked up, too.”

“Consider your training,” Harry advised. “Would you be able to find such evidence now?”

Eggsy barely had to think about it. “Yeah. Yeah I could,” he agreed.

“Aside from thinking she would have to allow Dean access to Daisy, did your mother argue about anything else? Defend her actions, or Dean’s?”

“No.” Eggsy tucked his head down again. “Not really. Said she was scared, like that was an excuse, but she did admit that she failed me. It didn’t really help. Ain’t like I want her to apologize. It wouldn’t change nothing. I just want her doing better by Daisy.”

“I believe she will. She is safely away from the worst influences. The most pressing needs of a roof over her head and food on the table have been taken care of. More importantly, you made her face her own failings with you. She has the time, space, and motivation for self reflection, darling. Once she is able to clear her head, I’m sure she will do better with your sister.” Harry ran a hand down Eggsy’s side comfortingly. “And if she does not, then we shall both be watching, and we can take steps to make sure your sister is safe.”

“I hope you’re right.” They fell quiet, simply enjoying the closeness for a time. After a while, Eggsy found his fingers wandering, slipping through the buttons of Harry’s pajama top to touch warm, smooth skin. He felt the slight tensing of muscles when his fingertips traced over a fading bruise, a remnant of the church. He doubted it was physical pain causing the tension. “How are _you_ handling everything?” he asked quietly. “We haven’t really talked about it, but. I seen the church. I know how bad it was.”

Harry’s arms tightened around him again, though for a different reason. “Most of the time, I’m alright,” he said eventually. “I know it wasn’t my fault. We had no idea what the SIM cards could do, no defense against it.”

“An’ the rest of the time?”

“A mix of angry and terrified. As disgusted as I was by the hate being preached there, I would never have chosen to kill them. That signal…took that choice from me. It would be easier if I had been mindless, I think. But I wasn’t. Everything was as calculated as any other kill I have ever had to make. But it wasn’t a choice, I could no more have stopped myself from killing than I could stop myself breathing simply by willing it. It was the most bizarre mix of in control while having absolutely none at the same time.”

“I’m sorry, love. I would take it from you, if I could.”

“I wouldn’t let you. You’re the last person I would ever want to feel like this.”

Eggsy let his mouth curl in a smile, suddenly loving Harry so much that it _hurt_. “We’re each as bad as th’ other, I think.”

“I suspect you may be right.”

 

 


End file.
